


Life in Colour

by Khalehla



Series: Souls on Fire [5]
Category: Football RPF
Genre: 2009 U17 boys friendship, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Everyday Life, Family Feels, Family Issues, Friendship, Future Fic, Kids fun, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-football, Retirement, post-retirement lives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2018-08-17 08:29:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 23,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8137273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khalehla/pseuds/Khalehla
Summary: Introducing: the Kids. Starring: the Götze-Reus and ter Stegen-Leno kids (and their dads, of course!), plus the occasional close friend and family.Stories set after football retirement, these are a collection of domestic scenes revolving around the next generation.Companion piece to Life unmasked and the follow-on stories of Take my hand





	1. Birthday boy

**Author's Note:**

> The stories are not in chronological order and are basically one-shots, but they are all set in the [Souls on Fire](http://archiveofourown.org/series/433543) universe that sometime crosses over into the [All Good Things Come in Threes](http://gtwritings.tumblr.com/) universe (by the incredible [Natteravn](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Natteravn)).
> 
> Rated [T] for the general content, any changes to higher ratings will be highlighted in notes and tagged appropriately. If you're looking for specifically smutty fics, check out [Turn the lights down low](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8204710/chapters/18796522), which are stories that occur in this same universe, but are more adult.
> 
> \--  
> Reading [Beyond the masks we wear](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6071056/chapters/13915015), and [An Unexpected interlude](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6434605/chapters/14729035) isn't compulsory to understand this series of stories, but both fics contain the backstories and info that could be helpful to understand some of the references.
> 
> [A complete cast of original characters can be found here](http://archiveofourown.org/series/559894) (including relevant background information), and this will be updated regularly as new characters are introduced.
> 
> Prompts welcome!
> 
> \--  
> A million kisses to **Team[E.](http://eruditemonk.tumblr.com/) [T.](http://tyskerunge.tumblr.com/) [C.](http://catslikethieves.tumblr.com/)** because I couldn't have done this without you! I could spend a lifetime thanking you for all the hours of headcanon swapping and proofing that you offer so unselfishly, and it still wouldn't be enough. So many details here are yours as well, so I'll share all the good bits with you and take all the mistakes for myself. ;*
> 
> Much love!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in Jan 2022 during André Großkreutz's 5th birthday party

By the time Bernd finally pulls into Kevin’s driveway, he’s already tired from the lack of sleep he’d gotten over the New Year’s with his family and the long drive north, so he’s very much relieved to see Marc-André waiting for him.

“You look like death,” the other keeper says, looking him up and down.

“I missed you, too,” Bernd says with a roll of his eyes, hanging his puffy coat in the hallway with all the other winter gear. “Is everyone here already?”

“Pretty much, just waiting on Manu’s family. The birthday boy’s been looking for you, though,” Marc tells him.

Bernd grins. “I can’t wait to give him his present!”

Marc just laughs, and he’s only just dropped three quick kisses onto the corner of Bernd’s mouth when they hear a voice call out, “Uncle Bernd, you’re here!”

Bernd pulls quickly away from Marc and turns towards little André, smiling when the boy clings to him. “Hey there buddy,” he says, crouching down to give the birthday boy a hug. “Excited for your party?”

“Yes!” little André says. “You should see my cake – it’s a football game!”

And the birthday boy pulls Bernd into the house, where nearly everyone’s already gathered.

“Daddy I found them!” André announces loudly. “They were outside and they were  _kissing_!”

Kevin turns to Marc and Bernd in disbelief. “How many times do I have to tell the two of you to stop corrupting my son?!”

Despite the embarrassment of having been caught and told on by the birthday boy, Marc just grins at poor Kevin. “Does that mean now is a bad time to tell you what we got for his birthday present?”

“You  _didn’t!_ ” Kevin exclaims in horror, but before he can do anything, Bernd gives André his present, and the eager kid opens it without waiting for permission from his father.

“A goalie kit!” André yells in delight, pulling out the gloves and Germany NT jersey with “1” printed on the back and waving them excitedly around. The birthday boy turns to Manuel, who is grinning broadly, and says, “Papa now I can be just like you!”

Kevin groans loudly and pinches the bridge of his nose in defeat as everyone laughs. “I hate you all,” he says softly so that the delighted boy doesn’t hear.  

Marc and Bernd just high-five each other.

Little André wants to wear his gift already, but Kevin convinces him not to, pointing out that they’d spent over an hour looking for his birthday clothes because André had wanted it to be perfect, so he had to wear it while it was still his party.

Naturally he sulks, but that doesn't last long because not long after, André’s best friend arrives with his parents.

“MARC!” André squeals with delight, abandoning the adults and running to his friend.

“André!” is the equally excited response.

“ter Stegen!” Manuel calls out in fake excitement, making André Schürrle and Mario laugh loudly.

The two young boys stop hugging each other to look at the adults in confusion, and little Marc’s eyes go wide when he finally notices that Marc-André-the-goalkeeper - who his parents named him after (his mom being a huge Borussia Mönchengladbach fan) - is standing there looking a little embarrassed.

“Hi,” Marc-the-goalkeeper says, waving awkwardly.

“Hi,” little Marc responds, waving back just as shyly.

The birthday boy looks between his best friend and the other goalie, then suddenly remembers the present he received earlier, and he starts dragging Marc over to where his Uncle Lenny is arranging his presents on a table.

“That is going to get really confusing,” Kevin says, shaking his head before turning to Marc’s parents, Michael and Christina, and introducing them to everyone.

As far as kids birthday parties go, it’s a pretty tame one; which isn’t really a surprise considering there’s a grand total of two children at the party - namely the birthday boy and his best friend - and about a dozen adults just standing around the fireplace and eating, grateful to be out of the horrible weather.

André doesn’t seem to mind though, as he and young Marc chase each other around, drink way too much sugary drinks, and try to unwrap as many gifts as possible before Kevin firmly tells them to stop. By this time though, André’s already got two Lego boxes and a dump truck out and poor Lenny’s trailing after them picking up stray pieces of wrapping paper, plastic building blocks and the odd cupcake liner. Naturally, being five years old, the two boys get bored and decide that they’re going to make a raspberry float with their ice-cream and soda despite it freezing outside; they’re pulling down large bottles of fizzy drinks from the bar when they get caught.

“Marc!” Christina cries, running to her son who’s balancing rather precariously on a barstool.

“André!” Kevin calls out in exasperation when he sees his son with a giant tub of ice-cream in his hands.

“ter Stegen!” Mario and Bernd say simultaneously, high-five-ing each other when the owner of the full name face-palms himself and everyone else laughs again.

“That actually _is_ quite confusing,” Marco says, patting his friend sympathetically on the shoulder.

Little Marc and his parents leave about an hour after the two boys blow out the candle on André’s birthday cake together, and the rest of the adults start making plans to leave as well, with only Manuel staying back.

“You gonna be around?” Mario asks Bernd, knowing he’d come up from Baden-Württemberg.

“Yeah,” Bernd confirms, “I’ll be here until camp starts.”

“Good,” Marco says as they huddle outside, “come over if you’re not doing anything on Wednesday; we’re having a barbecue if the weather gets better with some of my friends that you already know.”

“Sure,” Marc agrees. “Text us the details; we’ll let you know if we can’t make it, but we should be free.”

“Will do.”

"See you boys on Wednesday, then," André Schürrle says, exchanging quick handshakes before quickly running to his car that's parked further away.

They all jump into their cars then, keen to get out of the weather and make their way to the warmth of their homes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Character bios can be found here](http://archiveofourown.org/series/559894)
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Other story references:  
> [Count to Three](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6434710/chapters/15807445)  
> [Visit](http://gtwritings.tumblr.com/post/150266465551/visit)


	2. A day at the zoo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in Sep 2028 during Jogi’s 5th birthday party

Mario walks carefully, navigating his way through the puddles on tiptoe, trying not to get his boots any dirtier than they already are. They were having fun - kids _and_ adults - but as much as he had enjoyed the zoo so far, Mario secretly couldn’t wait until they could go home and get out of his already mud-covered jeans. It wasn’t supposed to rain anymore, but Germany being what it is, they’d had an unexpected shower that morning, which was rather fortunately _short_ or else they would have had a group of unhappy kids and a sulking birthday boy and nothing to entertain them with for the whole afternoon - there wasn’t that many things Mario could think of that was more torturous than that.

He eventually picks his way to the table where Marc-André is sitting, guarding the stack of backpacks and coats, blowing bubbles for one of his ten-month old babies.

“Hey Lex,” Mario coos, holding his hands out and trying to entice the infant away from his dad, crowing when Alexei lets Mario pick him up.

“Where’s Bernd?” Mario asks, pretending to throw the baby in the air and making him squeal.

Marc tips his head to the side, indicating where Bernd is standing a bit further away with Shkodran, both men bouncing lightly from side to side while they talk, baby carriers strapped to their chests.

“Nik’s still fussing and Musti’s trying to get Rea to sleep,” Marc explains, putting the bottle of bubbles away and out of sight of kids.

“Poor things,” Mario says in sympathy. “This weather can’t be making things easier.”

Marc grimaces in agreement.  “We’ll probably have to leave soon; we’re gonna have to get Nik home before it starts getting colder, I don’t want his cough to come back.”

“Aww, don’t leave me yet bubba,” Mario pouts, pressing Alexei’s cheek to his before kissing him loudly. “I remember when Jogi was this small,” he sighs happily.

“Jogi’s not exactly _big_ , you know,” Marc smiles.

“You know what I mean,” Mario says, punching his friend lightly on the shoulder. “I miss just being able to pick him up so easily; now he’s got commentary for everything, even when all I wanna do is hug him.”

“At least he’s not back-chatting yet,” Marc points out.

“True,” Mario agrees. “And I’m not looking forward to when it starts. But, o well, it’s what we signed up for when we chose to have them, I suppose.”

“Not like you’re complaining.”

“No way, man; 100% worth it, any day, every day.”

“Well you get to prove how much you love it, because here they come.”

And sure enough, Jogi is running towards them, all his friends and cousins trailing after him. “Papa!” the birthday boy yells excitedly. “Come on! We’re going to feed the animals!”

Mario gives Alexei one last, loud kiss before handing the baby back to his father, then gives Marc a sidewards sigh as Jogi tugs at his arm. “Duty calls. If you guys leave before we get back, I hope Nik gets better soon.”

“Thanks; I’ll see you next week.”

Mario lets his eldest drag him along as their allocated zoo guide talks to the group about the the penguins and seals and how it’s very important to not poke or touch the animals they’re about to feed. It’s good advice, he thinks, because the kids are clearly excited and giving them boundaries should curb any mishaps.

Jogi, who is sitting up front with his cousins Lennart and Mia, yells in delight nearly the whole time, constantly looking up at where Mario and Marco are sitting at the very back, Julian cocooned between them.

“Julie! Jule! Come here! Look!” Jogi calls out, trying to get his younger brother to sit with him.

But this makes Julian climb into Marco’s arms, whimpering softly.

“Don’t you want to see the penguins?” Marco asks gently. “See how excited Jogi is? I bet it’s a lot of fun.”

“No,” Julian says, shaking his head and clenching his small hands into Marco’s shirt. “Don’t wanna see.”

Mario and Marco exchange a look. “It’s okay, baby,” Mario says, coming closer to give Julian a kiss on his forehead. “You can stay here with daddy if you want, but I’m gonna go sit up front with Jogi, okay?”

“Okay,” Julian says softly, pressing into Marco’s chest.

Mario gives Julian another kiss, then makes his way down to the front of the amphitheatre where the birthday boy is clapping happily.

Later that night, when the boys are tucked into bed, Marco and Mario stand in the doorway of the kids’ room, growing anxious by the second. It had taken a long time for Julian to finally let go of Marco so they could give him a bath, and it was only when they put Jogi in the tub first that Julian finally agreed to get in the water as well.

“What are we gonna do?” Mario asks worriedly. “Do you think he’s regressing? He’s been so good the past three months, now all of a sudden he’s all clingy and shy again.”

“I don’t know,” Marco sighs, rubbing a hand over his face. “Maybe it’s just because of the party; there were a lot of kids, after all, and it might have been a bit overwhelming for him.”

Mario chews on his lower lip, then asks, “do you think we should let him sleep with us?” As a rule, they don’t let the kids sleep with them, but Mario thinks this might be one of the rare times when they should. But before they can make a decision either way, Jogi climbs out of his bed, ignoring his dads in the doorway, and climbs into Julian’s.

Mario is about to take Jogi back to his own bed, when Marco stops him. “Wait,” he says softly, “look.”

Because Jogi had moved so fast, Mario hadn’t noticed that the elder boy had taken a couple of his stuffed toys with him, and he’s tucked his new penguin under Julian’s arms, all the while telling his brother stories about what they did that day.

Mario feels the tears prick in his eyes, because for the first time that day, Julian’s lost the sad, scared look on his face, and although he’s not saying anything, he’s watching Jogi intently, absentmindedly chewing on the penguin’s beak as Jogi talks on and on.

They wait about fifteen minutes, loathe to interrupt, but when Jogi finally starts yawning, Marco nudges him. “Maybe we should take them both?” he suggests, and Mario nods, before they both walk into the room and carry one child each back to their bedroom.

They place the two boys in the middle of the bed, Mario and Marco on each side, forming a closed parentheses, and it’s not long before all four fall into a tired, but content sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments appreciated and prompts welcome :)


	3. Twin tantrums

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introducing: the **tSL twins**.

“Niklas. Niklas. Sit down please.”

The child in question gives his father a blank look, then climbs down from his child chair and sits. For the next few minutes, it’s relatively quiet as the twins watch their baby educational programs and feed themselves. Marc-André doesn’t really mind that they’re getting more yoghurt on their faces rather than in their mouths because well, they’re barely _one_ , and he’s just happy that they’re even wanting to feed themselves.

What he’s not happy about is that every five minutes or so, Niklas will stand on his chair and bending over, bum in the air, will scoop yoghurt out of his bowl to keep eating. It’s cute, and he really wants to take his phone out to take videos so he and Bernd can laugh over them later, but when you’re trying to teach your toddlers proper eating routines, it’s also tiresome; especially when the toddler’s twin brother seems to be the reason behind the misbehaviour.

Marc can’t even prove that Alexei’s the one who keeps encouraging Niklas because the twins can’t even talk yet so it’s not like he can actually hear Alexei say “Nik, stand on the chair”, but Marc’s still pretty sure, because even if they can’t actually understand the babbling that happens pretty regularly now, they’ve known for about three months already that twin speak is _real_.

For example: right this very moment, Alexei is mumbling something that very innocently sounds like _mumumum_ but Niklas, after a few seconds of just watching and listening to his twin, slides off his chair again so he can stand on it; this time, with both his bowl and spoon in his hands.

Before they can have a food-related disaster, Marc reaches over to take the bowl out of his elder son’s hands. “Okay, no more yoghurt for you since you can’t do what you’re told,” he says. “One last time Niklas. Sit _down_ , please. Stop being so naughty.”

Niklas blinks at him, his eyes widening and Marc just knows he’s about to get the _what did I do wrong?_ look that’s usually accompanied by tears and lips trembling. Sighing, he picks Niklas up and sits him down on his chair again, placing his sippy-cup in front of him. “Drink some water,” Marc urges.

Niklas looks at the sippy cup, then his dad, then Alexei’s bowl of yoghurt, then his bowl that’s _far far away_ on the kitchen counter, then back at Marc; his baby eyes get wider and Marc can now see the water pooling in them.

“No more for you,” he says again, trying not to feel guilty. “You weren’t listening, bubba.”

And yep, there’s the lower lip trembling. Marc’s never been good at saying no to the twins when they were like this, and he honestly doesn’t know how Bernd can still stand firm when their kids just look so damn adorable; it must be the fact that Daniel had kids and Bernd’s had years of practice already.

But seriously? How can Niklas still make him feel bad for trying to discipline him when it’s Niklas who wasn’t listening in the first place? Yes, they’re only a year old, but they already understood the meaning of “sit down” and eating properly, so Marc is well within his parenting rights to not be happy about Niklas not listening. Reality is, though, he can never stay annoyed for long, and he’s this close to giving in, when Alexei decides he’s in a sharing mood and offers his spoon to his twin.

Marc can’t help it, his lips curl into an adoring smile when Niklas looks at the spoon that Alexei’s waving at him, then at Marc. When Daddy doesn’t look like he’s going to say no, Niklas opens his mouth and leans in. Unfortunately, Alexei must have gotten impatient waiting, because it’s that exact same moment that he pushes the spoon closer to Niklas’ face, and ends up stabbing his twin on the nose.

Niklas looks shocked, then bursts into tears and starts wailing.

Alexei looks just as shocked, and starts crying as well.

So much for that cute twin moment.

Marc sighs once more, then wipes the yoghurt off his kids’ faces, before taking Alexei’s bowl and spoon to the sink; neither of them are going to want to eat after this little incident so he might as well clean them up now.

It takes a long time for Marc to settle them down, both boys clinging to him and refusing to be comforted (or, both of them determined to keep crying as long as the other one is crying as well, in some weird baby-twin competition, he thinks), but after maybe forty-five minutes of pacing the room with one child on each shoulder, they finally cry themselves to sleep, snot and tears soaking into his shirt.

Bernd finds them like this when he gets home soon after, Marc lying on the couch with two sniffling babies across his chest, thumbs in their mouths and whimpering occasionally; all three of them look exhausted.

“Hey,” Bernd greets Marc-André softly. “What happened here?”

“I honestly have no idea,” Marc replies tiredly. “One minute I’m trying to get Nik to sit down and eat properly, the next minute they’re both crying.”

Bernd smiles in sympathy, reaching over to smooth back Alexei’s hair. “One of those moments, huh? Wanna take them upstairs so they can nap properly?”

“Yeah,” Marc grunts softly, loosening his hold on Alexei so Bernd can take him. “I need to get out of this shirt and do the dishes.”

“It’s okay, go change,” Bernd says as they make their way to the boys’ room. “I’ll clean up down there.”

Marc sighs in relief. “Thanks,” he says quietly as they put the kids into the cot and switch the baby monitor on. “I’m gonna take a quick shower; I can feel the yoghurt congealing on my skin.”

Bernd wrinkles his nose, then shoos Marc to their bathroom. He heads downstairs to rinse the dishes and grab a couple of the pre-made fruit smoothies (because who has time to make your own juices when you’ve got _twins?_ ) so that they could have quiet time before the boys woke up and the inevitable madness started again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want twin babies cuteness, watch [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lkb5tQLOM8) XD
> 
> Comments appreciated and prompts welcome :)


	4. Little acts of rebellion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introducing: Jogi's cousins
> 
> Set in the summer of 2025. Jogi and Lennart are 2, Nico is 13, Mia is 10, Marvin and Stefan are 5.

Marco’s been dozing, carefully balanced on the very narrow picnic bench since 7am, genuinely enjoying the couple of hours of peace and quiet, when he  wakes to the tell-tale sound of a camera phone clicking.

“Sunny,” he half-growls in warning, opening his eyes and seeing the face of his nephew instead, rather than his other half. “Really Nico?” he sighs, sitting up.

The young man grins at him unapologetically. “I’m open to bribes if you never want anyone - and by anyone, I mean Uncle Mario specifically - to ever see this photo.”

Marco grabs Nico and holds him in a headlock. “How could you?” he demands. “You’re supposed to be on _my_ side! I changed your diapers!”

“All’s fair in love and embarrassing photos!” Nico laughs, trying to break away.

“Traitor!” Marco mutters, dropping a kiss on his nephew’s forehead before letting go. “Where is everyone?”

“Unloading the goodies,” Nico replies, pointing at the large portable icebox he’d carried down from the carpark.

“Okay you stay here and guard the picnic table, I’ll go help grab the rest.”

It’s a great day for a barbecue. Marco’s completely enjoying the sun and being with both sides of their families, especially since their kids are all pretty much the same age; Jogi was growing up with a ton of cousins, and Marco absolutely loved it.

Speaking of which.

“Where’s Jogi?” Marco looks up from where he’s lying with his head in his husband’s lap and prods Mario in the stomach.

Mario pauses from the card game he’s playing with his brothers and Melanie and looks around, finally spotting their child at the picnic table with Lennart, Mia and Nico.

“Jogi, what are you doing, baby?” he calls, getting the toddler’s attention.

Jogi looks up and waves at his dad. “Papa! I call you!” he yells happily.

Mario is about to reply “okay” when Jogi lifts something to his ear, and he realises that it’s a real phone. “Marco, where’s your phone?” he asks urgently.

Marco pats himself down, realises it’s not anywhere on him, then sits up.

“Shit,” Mario mumbles, before calling out. “Jogi, is that Daddy’s phone?”

“No!” Jogi replies, putting the phone behind his back.

Mario looks over at the elder cousins, who fortunately, are paying attention and nod at him.

“I think that’s Daddy’s phone, baby, can you bring that here please?”

“No!” Jogi says again. “Not Daddy’s!”

“Jogi, bring the phone here please!” Mario warns. “You might drop it in the icebox.”

Even from here, they can see their son put on his most mulish face. “I’m playing,” he insists. “I call you.”

Mario makes a frustrated sound. “You can call me on your phone, give that back to Daddy.”

“Where _is_ his phone?” Marco mumbles, looking around for Jogi’s toy. When he finds it, he gets up and walks over to their son who stubbornly tries to hold on to Marco’s phone, but eventually agrees to swap.

Which ends up being a good thing because not long after, they hear Astrid call out in alarm. “Jogi! Lennart! What are you doing?” she says, sounding exasperated. “You’re not supposed to put your toys in there!”

Both Mario and Fabian look up to see their mom fish out two very wet toys from out of the icebox, and Marco groans.

“Thank God that wasn’t your phone!” Mario sighs at Marco, before turning to his older brother. “Your turn?”

Fabian rolls his eyes but gets up anyway. “Alright you two, go play with your cousins,” he says to Lennart and Jogi, taking them in one hand each and leading them to where Stefan and Marvin are playing with their cars.

Stefan, who thinks he’s older than he really is, makes a face. “Why do _we_ have to play with the babies?” he frowns.

“The babies are your brother and your cousin,” Fabian says calmly. “Remember what we talked about being a good older brother and sharing your toys?”

Stefan grumbles a little but can’t do anything since Marvin pulls Jogi and Lennart to him and starts giving them some of their toys to play. For a good hour, the children play - miraculously - peacefully, until the younger boys get cranky and toddle back to their parents for a nap.

“They grow up so fast,” Fabian says softly, reaching over to where his son is cradled in his wife’s arms, pushing back Lennart’s hair from his face. “Stefan thinks he’s ten and you have to ask permission to kiss him half the time; I just wanna keep Lennart two forever.”

“I know what you mean,” Marco agrees, bending down and pressing a kiss to Jogi’s forehead. “Jogi wanted to climb out of his car seat by himself the other day, said he didn’t need my help anymore.”

“Treasure them now,” Jürgen says wisely, nostalgia and tenderness on his face as he looks between his two youngest grandchildren. “You’ll never get these days back anymore.”

Marco just tightens his arms around Jogi, smiling even as his son whimpers in protest in his sleep, thankfulness and love throbbing in his veins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bios of the kiddies can be read [here.](http://archiveofourown.org/series/559894)


	5. Prank wars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the tSL twins vs goalie twins, and it's _war_.

Bernd wakes up cursing.

The last time this happened was due to a storm and the power had been cut; that and the combination of thunder had terrified the twins and as he and Marc-André had taken the toddlers back to their room, Bernd had wanted to strangle someone for making his babies cry.

This time, he wants to strangle the twins themselves.

“Where the fuck is it?!” Marc growls, rolling out of bed and trying to find the alarm currently blasting in their bedroom at 4 in the morning.

In an effort to win this round of prank wars, the twins had found every single one of Marc’s egg-timers and set them to go off at random intervals through the night, hiding them in places that usually took them at least half a minute to find. The last one had gone off just after 2am, the first two had gone off within 15 minutes of each other - right in the middle of _them_ time - and to their annoyance, that had been enough to kill the mood entirely. This was the fourth one, and Bernd was just about done with it.

“I think we’re going to have to let them win this round,” Bernd sighs when Marc grumbles his way back to bed (this one, thankfully, had been hidden behind one of the curtains so it was easy to find).

Marc just huffs in response, curling himself in the sheets and trying to get another few hours of sleep before they had to get up to do the school run.

When another alarm goes off just after 6, Bernd doesn’t even waste energy cursing some more or trying to get back to sleep; he just tiredly half-falls out of bed, gropes underneath for the egg-timer, then trudges into the bathroom.

By the time he’s sipping his first cup of coffee, Marc’s made his way downstairs as well, looking just as exhausted as he feels. “I don’t know if I can handle another night like that,” Marc says, stealing the mug out of Bernd’s hands and finishing the rest of the coffee.

“So we’re gonna let them win?”

“We’ll see,” Marc hums, handing the empty mug back and getting his own to make more coffee. “I’ve got a couple of ideas still.”

The boys come down for breakfast looking very smug, probably knowing exactly just how little sleep their fathers got the night previous.

“Morning Dad, morning Papa,” they greet them simultaneously, voices much too cheerful.

Marc grunts. Bernd scowls. Niklas and Alexei grin broadly.

“I change my mind, we’re definitely not letting them win this one,” Bernd mumbles under his breath as he hands the boys their hot chocolate and they start making their breakfast.

“Definitely not,” Marc agrees, going to the fridge to take out the leftovers and preparing the twins’ lunches.

“What are you doing?” Bernd asks when Marc also takes icing sugar out of the pantry.

“You’ll see,” Marc smirks.

When Bernd picks up the boys from school, they’re in a foul mood, and Bernd finally finds out what Marc did to their lunches.

“I thought it was a cake!” Alexei complains loudly. “It had chocolate icing on it!”

“But it was meatloaf!” Niklas continues, whining. “Daddy covered the meatloaf with icing! It was _disgusting!_ ”

“Awww,” Bernd says, very insincerely.

The twins glare at him, then grumble the whole way home.

Marc is in the kitchen trying - and failing - to look innocent when Alexei and Niklas leave their lunchboxes on the kitchen counter, and the twins give their dad identical scowls when he asks them how their day was.

When Marc gives them their early dinner, they push their forks through the pasta suspiciously, trying to see if Dad put trick food in it again.

“Eat your food,” Marc says, rolling his eyes when they look at him warily. “I’m not giving you food poisoning. You still need to finish your homework before we go to training.”

The boys grumble some more, but eat their dinner anyway.

“We’re going to have make new rules,” Bernd says as they drive to Borussia Park. “No pranks after 8pm and before 8am.”

“And no food pranks, Daddy!” Alexei adds almost indignantly. “That’s not fair because we’re not allowed to cook!”

Marc and Bernd think about it for a moment, then nod. “Okay, agreed!” At least their sleep and cuddle time wasn’t going to get affected anymore.

Two days later Marc-André comes downstairs for breakfast and Bernd nearly spits his coffee out. “What happened to your hair?!” he asks. “Why is it _pink?_ ”

Marc stares at Bernd, then rushes to the hallway mirror and yes, his hair is indeed pale pink. “Those little rascals! They must have put food colouring in my shampoo! I bet this is revenge for the meatloaf!”

“Didn’t you notice it when you were fixing your hair?” Bernd laughs.

“The shampoo is pink and the hair clay is brown, so no, I didn’t really notice at the time,” Marc admits.

Of course the twins come down at that exact moment, and when they see him, the identical, cheeky grins come out.

“Nice hair, Dad,” Niklas says. “You look very pretty.”

“You look nice too, Papa,” Alexei adds, smiling innocently.

As the twins prepare their breakfast, Marc and Bernd watch them suspiciously, eyes narrowed.

Oh, it’s _on._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The trick cake was inspires by this:
> 
> _ _


	6. High ambitions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introducing more kiddies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this probably the last of the main introduction to the kiddies. Anyone else they will meet when they get older and will be introduced slowly over the future chapters.
> 
> the tSL twins and Rea are around 2.5, Julian is 5, Jogi and Semih are 6.5, Zamira is just about to turn 6, Hanin is 7.5, Arjana is 9 and Eren is 10.5
> 
> Also for [tmrs](http://archiveofourown.org/users/tmrs/pseuds/tmrs) who wanted naked tSL twin babies running past Yunus XD

Yunus blinks, then frowns, then blinks again. He’s pretty sure he just saw two very excited and very naked two-and-a-half year olds run past him, squealing loudly.

“Was that…?” he asks his wife, who is chatting with Vjosa next to him.

“Yup,” Hatice replies, not looking as concerned as he feels.

Yunus looks up to see Bernd and Marc-André walking by, carrying identical Thomas the Tank Engine backpacks and wearing identical adoring expressions on their faces. “Dudes,” he says to them, “I’m not sure if you realise, but your kids don’t have any clothes on.”

“Do nappies count as clothes? But yes, we know,” Bernd nods, also not concerned.

“Not sure,” Yunus admits, “but _why_ are they running around naked?”

“Bro, we’re in a playground,” Marc points out, “it’s hot, _really_ hot, and there are water fountains everywhere - do you seriously think that we’re gonna get through the whole day without the kids getting wet?”

“We didn’t bring that many spare clothes for them and we’re going to my mom’s straight after this,” Bernd explains, “at least this way they get to play and we don’t have to worry about them getting sick afterwards.”

Okay, fair enough, they did have a point there, although the ~~twins’~~ former goalkeepers’ rather blasé attitude towards their kids’ casual nudity was still slightly unsettling.

[Yunus was going to have to stop referring to Marc and Bernd as “the twins” now, especially since they actually had twins of their own, and well, it was just starting to get a little confusing.]

And to be fair to Marc and Bernd, they endeup being correct. The other kids had gone green with jealousy when they saw the twins jumping around in the water fountains and their own parents hadn’t let them. After ten minutes of concentrated whining and crying though, the parents had eventually given up, stripped their own kids of what clothes they could (not all of them were still young enough to run around naked like the tSL twins) and let them loose.

And they had a great time; nothing quite like free entertainment with something as simple as running through ropes of water being shot in the air to make everyone happy. Shkodran, Mario and Bernd had even joined the kids in the fun, and after managing to stay dry for at least half an hour, Yunus got pushed into a fountain by Marco, so he ended up playing with the kids as well.

 

After two hours of non-stop running around, they finally got the kids to come out of the water so that they could re-apply sunscreen and have some food. Hatice and Vjosa used their scarves to wipe the kids down, laying the wet clothes out on the grass to dry, and Mario used his shirt to do the same for Jogi and Julian; the twins simply got their nappies changed and clothes put back on.

“It’s incredible how much they loved that,” Mario says when the kids had finished eating and the younger ones went down for a nap. “I mean, we all have pools at home, you’d think they’d get sick of water eventually.”

Marc-André snorts. “The twins started learning to swim when they were 9 months and they loved it. I caught them at the gates to the pool the other day, probably trying to figure out how to climb over so they could go for a swim.”

“The girls are the same,” Shkodran says. “Arjana’s already in a swim squad and we’ll probably let Zamira enrol, too.”

“Nice,” Marco says. “You might get an Olympic swimmer out of them!”

“I wish,” Shkodran says, “I don’t think any of them are planning on playing football, so I can’t be a football-dad, I’ll have to be a swim-dad instead.”

“You’re going to hate the early morning wake-ups for training,” Vjosa says to her husband.

Shkodran groans. “Well, there’s that too, unfortunately.”

“But you should be used to it,” Yunus says. “You played football, remember?”

“Yeah, but we didn’t start at 6am for training!”

“6? Really?” Yunus makes a face. “I’m glad none of ours chose swimming then.”

“I chose football so I wouldn’t have to get up that early anymore once I graduated from school,” Mario says with a smile.

“Did you pass that on to Jogi?” Bernd teases his friend. “Is that why he’s telling everyone he’s gonna be a famous footballer like his dads?”

Mario punches Bernd lightly on the shoulder, trying not to jostle Niklas who was sleeping across his father’s legs. “He’s actually pretty good right now, but hey, he’s only just turning seven, so it’s still a bit early to tell if he’ll cope, I guess.”

“Little André’s doing well,” Marco adds, “and since Jogi seems to want to do everything André does, hopefully it will rub off on him."

“How come they couldn’t make it today?” Shkodran asks.

“Family thing on Manu’s side?” Marco shrugs. “Kev sounded pretty stressed when I talked to him so I didn’t wanna push.”

“Fair enough,” Shkodran nods. “And Mats and Bene?”

“Lisa’s got a check-up and Cathy has some fashion show on that they invited Mats to as well.”

“Honest to God, Hummels should have just started off as a model instead of a footballer,” Mario says, shaking his head. “Armani and Hugo Boss are fighting over him _again_.”

“ESPN want him now too,” Marco adds.

“Fucking Mats and his movie-star good looks and perfect English,” Shkodran also shakes his head.

“You sounded just like Kevin when you said that,” Marco laughs. “And you and Marc speak English _and_ Spanish - why didn’t you guys become pundits, too?”

Marc-André stares at his friend like he had grown another head. “Dude, I’m trying to start up a café with your husband and I have two year-old twins, when am I supposed to find time to watch enough games so I can do punditry as well?”

Marco just shrugs. “Mats manages.”

“Mats’s youngest kid is already in school,” Marc points out. “And seriously, _twins!_ ”

“Well, Musti can do it, right?” Marco turns to their other friend.

“Nope,” Shkodran disagrees. “I have investments, three girls and a model wife - and I like being arm candy when Vjosa has a gig.” This earns him an exasperated slap on the arm from aforementioned wife. “And I told you, I’m gonna be an Olympic swim-dad.”

“Who’d have thought this would be us once we retired from football?” Mario laughs. “Two wanna-be chefs, a swim-dad, someone learning to fly, and a student. Oh, and a successful business man; sorry Yunus, almost forgot you actually have another career.”

“I’m not a swim-dad _yet_ ,” Shkodran corrects, “so can I be part-time arm candy instead?”

“And it’s really Hatice who runs the business,” Yunus adds, “so I guess I’m a glorified admin assistant?”

“Whatever looks good on your résumé,” Mario agrees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that water fountain is located in Sydney's Darling Quarter.


	7. First lesson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexei and Daddy share a new hobby.

Today is not a good day. This is what Alexei is thinking as he stomps down the stairs loudly on purpose, hoping that Niklas could hear from his room just how annoyed he is at his twin. The morning had been going fine at first; they’d been reading their books together like they normally did, happy because Papa had bought them the new stories in the _Choose your own space adventure_ series that they were currently reading, and they had been discussing how they were going to make the space pirate fight the aliens in the next chapter when Niklas had gone all bossy on him.

Alexei hated it when Niklas pulled the “older twin” argument - especially when Niklas was only _four_ minutes older and Alexei didn’t understand why Niklas thought that gave him permission to always choose which way the stories went! So Alexei had yelled that he was gonna tell Daddy and Papa that Niklas was being bossy and didn’t want to play fairly; Niklas had yelled “fine, go be a tattle-tale!” and Alexei had gotten even angrier because no-one wanted to be labeled a tattle-tale, so he slammed the book shut in Niklas’ face and practically ran out the room.

He is so angry, and he really does think about telling his dads about Niklas’ attitude - except they are nowhere in the living room when he gets there.

“ _Da_ -ad! _Pa_ pa!” Alexei calls out loudly, wondering if they are in the pool house after all despite the fact that his parents always told them when they were going in the backyard so that the twins always knew where they were.

“Over here.”

Alexei hears Papa’s muffled voice even as he sees a hand shoot up in the air and wave at him from behind the couch. Huffing irritably, Alexei peers over the back of the couch to see his Papa lying on his back with Daddy resting on his chest. They’re reading a book together, something they did regularly, and Alexei frowns when they ask where Niklas is.

“I’m bored,” he says, ignoring the question and coming around the couch to flop himself onto the arm chair.

“Wanna go for a swim?” Dad asks, sitting up, and Alexei’s tempted, but also feeling a bit lazy.

“Not really,” he says, sinking deeper into the armchair. “Can you play with me?”

“Why aren’t you and Nik reading?” Papa asks, giving that Look that meant his parents knew that they were arguing.

“I don’t feel like it anymore,” Alexei sulks, looking away when Dad and Papa give each other another type of Look.

He knows they’re about to say something about him and Niklas fighting, so he says very quickly, “there’s something wrong with your camera.”

Two Christmases ago Daddy had set up the cameras to take photos while they opened presents and had Christmas breakfast in their pajamas so that he and Papa didn’t have to and they could always have photos of the four of them together. Dad had set them up again for Papa’s birthday, then decided not to take them down because he liked being able to take what they called “house photos” even when there wasn’t any occasion. No-one in the house even noticed the cameras set up around the living area and backyard anymore, and Alexei didn’t even know if they were on half the time, but he could see one with blinking red lights and a white message on the tiny screen; he thinks it’s the perfect thing to distract his dads.

“What do you mean?” Daddy asks as Papa also sits up, and Alexei points to the camera.

Daddy walks over to peer at the camera quickly. “Oh it’s fine; that’s just the timer.”

“What about the timer?” Alexei asks, not because he wants to know, but because it will keep Daddy talking and maybe then he won’t get in trouble for fighting with Niklas.

“I’ve set it up for a random sequence so it keeps flashing erratically.”

Alexei doesn’t understand, so he frowns at his dad, walking over when Daddy says “wanna see?”

It’s his first lesson in the workings of a camera, and when Daddy takes him outside to do star jumps to see how the timer works, he forgets about being annoyed at Niklas, and spends an enjoyable afternoon with Daddy in the back yard, taking photos on an actual camera and not just his parents’ smartphones, learning how to focus and take macro shots.

They’re in the studio after dinner to go through the photos that they took earlier, and Alexei can’t help but feel happy and proud when Daddy tells him that he took some excellent photos for his first time with a professional camera; he spends his free time in the the next few weeks taking more photos and learning more neat tricks. Daddy is usually his model when he’s taking practice photos, but one weekend, Niklas agrees to do some jump shots for him so he can practice taking action shots, and from then on, his twin ends up being the primary content of his photos.

It’s so much _fun_ , because although there are usually only two photos that are clear enough to print, in this particular one, Niklas looks like the Flash in them especially because he’s wearing an oversized red t-shirt that day.

“You’re getting really good at this Lex,” Daddy says after they print the photos print and admire his work. “Do you like taking photos?”

“It’s fun!” Alexei nods his head, “but lots of work and it’s a bit boring in the back yard - can I take the camera to school?”

“Sorry, but no,” Daddy says, and Alexei is only slightly disappointed because he knows that the camera is expensive and it’s one of the ones that his dad takes when he goes on an ~~expition~~   ~~explortion~~  photo taking course. “But you’re allowed to use it anywhere in the house as long as you tell me first.”

“Thanks Dad!” Alexei says, kissing his dad in excitement, already thinking of all the things he could practice on. And Daddy helps as well, teaching him how to zoom to focus, and promising to teach him about shutter speed when he got better at it so he could take better action shots.

They usually spend Sunday after lunch going over his photos, deleting the ones that are awful and printing out one or two really good ones to give to Papa or one of his grandparents or friends, and Daddy is mostly really happy with Alexei pretty much walking around the house and taking photos on his expensive camera. Mostly.

“When did you take this?” Daddy asks one day, eyes wide and face red as they go through his photos.

Alexei shrugs. “I think on Wednesday? Before we were going to training?”

“Okay,” Daddy breathes, and Alexei thinks Daddy may be upset even though he doesn’t understand why because he thought it was a good photo.

“It’s not good?” Alexei asks, a little bit disappointed.

It's a photo of Daddy and Papa getting ready to take them to Borussia Park, both of them standing in front of the wardrobe in their room. Alexei remembers that at the time, they were laughing over something, and when Daddy had grabbed Papa around the shoulders to kiss him, Alexei had taken the photo because he thought it would make a good, happy action shot. He had used the focus well and he liked how he managed to time it so that Papa had his head tipped back, laughing as Daddy squashed his face to Papa’s cheek; but maybe there wasn’t enough light in the room for it to be good enough to keep - it was a pretty dark photo now that he really looked at it.

“It _is_ a good photo,” Daddy stays, still sounding a bit strange, “but no more photos in our bedroom okay? Not unless you ask us first.”

“Okay,” Alexei nods. “Are we deleting this one?”

“Yes, but I want to print out a copy first - as a memory. Is that alright?”

“Yeah,” Alexei shrugs, not knowing why his dad wanted a print out even if they were deleting it. “But I think the one of you and Papa in the car is better; it’s not so dark.”

“We’ll print that one too and give it to Papa if you think it’s worth printing,” Daddy agrees.

Two weeks later Alexei sees the photo framed and hung up inside one of the doors of Daddy and Papa’s wardrobe, and he shakes his head because that was such an odd place to hang a photo. His parents were so weird sometimes.


	8. Special kisses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niklas and Alexei, cupids-in-training

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For [Meerschweinchen](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Meerschweinchen/pseuds/Meerschweinchen), who loves the concept of Three just as much as I do :D

The boys are already halfway through breakfast by the time Marc-André makes his way down, phone pressed to his ear.

“Mar, just send me a text,” he’s saying into the phone, “I’m not going to remember all that.”

There’s a brief pause as Mario responds, then Marc makes his way to the counter to grab the travel coffee cup and toast Bernd had already prepared for him.

“Sorry, gotta run,” Marc says, taking a bite before pressing a quick, loud kiss to Niklas’s cheek.

“Daddy,” the elder twin complains, brushing the crumbs from his face.

Marc just grins at him, then kisses Alexei as well, before placing his hand on Bernd’s neck. “I’ll bring home food later so don’t worry about dinner.”

“Sure,” Bernd says, tilting his face up so that Marc can drop three kisses to the corner of his mouth.

“Be good, boys,” Marc says, ruffling Alexei’s hair before finally leaving.

Niklas finishes the last of his bread before asking, “Papa, how come you never kiss Dad?”

Bernd only just stops from choking on his coffee. “Oh, I’m pretty sure I do,” he objects mildly.

“But you don’t” Niklas disagrees. “It’s always Daddy who does that thing.”

“What thing?”

“You know, that _thing_.” Niklas waves at his twin who is sitting next to Bernd. “Lex show Papa.”

Alexei kneels up onto his chair, then leans over and presses his mouth to Bernd’s cheek, kissing him three times in an approximate imitation of Marc’s earlier actions. Bernd lets out a small, relieved breath.

“Oh _that_ ,” he says, grinning. “That’s kinda Daddy’s special thing, so it’s not really my place to do it.”

“Huh?” Niklas asks, confused.

Bernd flounders around for an appropriate analogy. “You know how you get limited editions for toys and stuff? And they’re more special because only a few people have it? Well, it’s not the exact same, but it’s similar. Dad started it and it’s his special kiss, so if I was doing it as well, it wouldn’t really be special now, would it?”

“That doesn’t really make sense, Papa,” Alexei says after thinking about it for a while.

“Sorry,” Bernd smiles, “I tried.”

“So do you have a special kiss, then?” Niklas asks, curious.

Bernd doesn’t really know why his six year-old sons are so curious about the way he and Marc exchange affection, but in a way he’s glad that their efforts to make sure that the twins see them kissing as natural has paid off. “Not really,” he replies. “Daddy kinda beat me to it and it’s really hard to come up with something better, actually.”

“You just need to think harder, Papa,” Niklas says, sounding exasperated, and it’s scary, really, how much like them the boys are already starting to behave.

“I _have_ ,” Bernd says with a little laugh. “But I’m not really trying to compete.” He stands up, signalling they need to leave for school now. “Come on, dishes in sink and brush teeth.”

Bernd would have forgotten about the interlude, except the next week he gets reminded of it again by the twins.

“Papa can we go out for dinner tonight if Daddy hasn’t cooked anything yet?” Alexei asks one day as they’re heading school.

“Any reason why?” Bernd asks as they lock the front door and get in the car. “You know we don’t really eat out during weekdays when Dad’s home.”

“Oh my gosh Papa you’re like so not-romantic!” Niklas says dramatically. “Did you forget? It’s Valentines day. _Everyone_ is going out tonight!”

“Which means every restaurant in the city is going to be booked out,” Bernd points out.

“We can go to Uncle Kevin’s,” Niklas suggests. “He always has reserved tables, right?”

“So who’s the not-romantic, now?” Bernd smiles. “You want to go out for Valentines day but you want to eat burgers and fries? Really?”

“We’re not going on a date,” Alexei says, rolling his eyes in almost perfect imitation of his fathers. “So there’s nothing wrong with burgers and fries. Unless you and Daddy are going on a date? Are you going out tonight? Does that mean you’re leaving us at home?”

This time it’s Bernd who rolls his eyes. “On a weeknight? When everyone we know who can babysit you will be out on their own dates? Not likely, boys.”

“Geez Papa, we’re not _babies_  - we don’t need babysitting,” Niklas complains.

“Oh yes you do and we’re not leaving you home alone,” Bernd says firmly.

“So does that mean we _are_ going out tonight?” Alexei asks eagerly.

“I’ll have to talk to your dad still to see what he says, and see if we can get a table at Kevin’s. So maybe.”

“Good enough for me,” Alexei cheers, and he high-fives his twin.

Bernd doesn’t know how, but Kevin does manage to make a last-minute reservation for them at the restaurant, and Niklas and Alexei are over-excited when he tells them. They spend the rest of the afternoon asking questions about their past dates (the boys are incredibly disappointed when he tells them that he and Marc were usually playing or training when Valentines Day came around so they hardly went on dates) and wanting to know what present he got Marc.

“Not even chocolates?” Niklas asks in disbelief when Bernd admits he didn’t get Marc anything. “But what if Daddy got you something? Then _you_ won’t have anything.”

“I don’t think that’s a problem,” he says, but they’re still looking at him worriedly. “I’m sure Dad didn’t get anything.”

“How do you know?” Alexei asks.

“We don’t normally get each other stuff,” Bernd explains. “Valentines Day just isn’t something that we really do.”

“Okay Papa,” Alexei sighs. “But next year we’ll help you plan your Valentines Day so that it will be special.”

Bernd just laughs at how invested they seem to be. “I’ll tell Dad you offered.”

“And we’ll help you come up with a special kiss too,” Niklas adds. “Because it shouldn’t just be Daddy who has one.”

“Ahh, thanks, I guess,” Bernd says, this time somewhat bewildered.

Dinner that night is rather quiet, not just because they are out and the boys know how to behave when they’re in public, but also because Niklas and Alexei spend their time observing them while they eat their burgers. It’s a little bit unnerving having the twins just stare at them, and by the time they head home, Bernd’s not the only one relieved the twins aren’t watching them anymore.

“Was it just me or where the boys acting really strange tonight?” Marc-André asks once they’re in bed.

“Of god,” Bernd half-laughs, half-groans. “They were interrogating me on why I wasn’t being romantic, earlier.”

“Really?” Marc asks, surprised but amused. “What caused that?”

Bernd presses his lips to the corner of Marc’s mouth. “They wanted to know what was so special about _this_ ,” and he kisses Marc three times, “and why I don’t have something similar.”

“What did you say?” Marc asks, turning slightly so that they are facing each other, lips barely touching.

Bernd shrugs. “I couldn’t compete with that.”

“Oh _please_ ,” Marc laughs. “Even our _six_ year-olds know everything is a friendly competition between us - don’t tell me they believed you!”

“Nik said I need to think harder,” Bernd admits, also laughing.

“Should I be expecting something grand, then?” Marc grins.

“Don’t hold your breath,” Bernd says, rolling his eyes but closing the minuscule gap between their lips anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the three kisses reference is from [count to three.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6434710/chapters/15807445)


	9. A question of family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> André has some questions, and Marc and Bernd offer reassurance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set in early January 2028, André has just turned 11 and the tSL twins are barely 2 months old.
> 
> Some angst and family feels, and a questioning!André
> 
> Agh, Natteravn, can you believe the first of the "angsty" chapters revolves around little André? Anyway, thank you for your valuable input in his characterisation and again for letting him be a part of this universe :*

It’s been raining non-stop again and for a metaphor for the next few minutes, Bernd can’t think of a better one.

They’re at Kevin’s house for an impromptu get together for André’s birthday, and he and Marc-André are sitting apart in the quieter living room so that the twins could nap after having just been fed. They’re talking softly about unimportant things, one twin held close to each of their chests, when the birthday boy comes in, staring at them from the doorway.

There’s something in the way that André’s standing that rings little alarm bells in Bernd’s head, and he waves at André in a “come here” motion, watching as the boy walks hesitantly towards them, sitting next to Bernd so he can peer at Alexei.

“Is he asleep?” André whispers so softly that Bernd could barely hear him.

“Yeah,” Bernd whispers back. “He just had his milk so he’s going to sleep for a while. You wanna hold him or Nik when they wake up?”

André nods, then slowly reaches out to lightly run his finger across Alexei’s tiny shoulder. For the longest time they sit there in silence watching the sleeping infants, but Bernd is very much aware that André is getting tenser and tenser and he’s starting to worry over the boy. Marc must pick up on it too, because he nudges their shoulders ever so slightly, inclining his head in André’s direction, his raised eyebrows asking Bernd if he knows what’s wrong.

But then André breaks the silence himself. “Isn’t it hard? Feeding them, I mean? Don’t they need their mom for that?” he asks.

The question is incredibly mature and takes them by surprise, but Bernd tries to keep his tone light as he replies. “If their mom is around, then yes, the babies can breastfeed, but there’s also baby formula which gives newborns everything they need as well, so they’re not missing out on anything.”

“I just thought,” André starts, then stops abruptly.

“What is it, André?” Bernd asks after André doesn't say anything for a while, now starting to get worried.

André bites on his lower lip. “My friend’s mom had a baby, too, and the baby can’t do anything without the mom around; I just thought all babies were like that. But then I remembered that I-,” he stops again, looks down and swallows. Bernd can hear Marc take a deep breath next to him and shift so that he is sitting upright; Marc is just as concerned now as he is.

“André?” Bernd taps the boy’s hand gently with his finger.

André swallows again. “Not everyone has to have a mom around, do they?” he asks quickly. “I mean Jogi is like Nik and Lex, and they’re okay. And me. I. I had a mom in the beginning, but then she left me, and I-, I turned out okay, didn’t I?”

The last part of the question is said ever so quietly, and Bernd’s heart breaks a little. Marc reaches over, takes André by the hand and shifts so that they’ve got the young and very vulnerable-looking boy in between them. “Of  _ course _ you turned out okay,” Marc says gently. “More than okay. And we would know - we babysat you.”

“You’re a good kid, André - crazy at times, but a good kid.” Bernd adds. “You listen to your dads, study hard and you look after your friends even though they’re a ton younger than you and you don’t have to. If anyone is telling you you’re  _ not _ okay, don’t listen to them - they don’t know what they’re talking about!”

André mumbles a quiet “okay”, but he’s hunched over himself still, looking slightly miserable.

“Is there something wrong?” Marc asks. “Is there something you wanna talk about? Or bothering you?”

André shakes his head. “I was just thinking,” he says slowly.

They nod in encouragement. “About?” 

André bites his lip again. “I was just wondering if there was something wrong with me because moms don’t normally leave their kids do they? Daddy said that she did what was best for me, but I don’t know. Maybe there  _ is  _ something wrong with me and she just didn’t want me in the end...”

Bernd inhales sharply even as he wraps his free arm around the boy. “Oh  _ André _ ,” he sighs, his heart breaking a little bit more. “There is nothing wrong with you -  _ nothing. _ Don’t tell yourself anything else, okay? You are perfectly fine! Didn’t you say that your Dad said that she left because she thought it was best for you? You’re right, you know. Parents don’t normally leave unless they believe it’s the absolute best thing for their child, and when your mom left, you’ve got to believe that it’s not because there’s something wrong with you.”

“How do you know that?” André asks, voice small and full of disbelief. “You didn’t even know my dad when I was born.”

“Just because we didn’t know you guys at the time it doesn’t mean we can’t understand, even just a little. I’m a dad now, too,” Bernd explains as gently as he can. “I’d never, ever leave Nik and Lex if I had the choice, but if for some reason leaving them would be better for them, then I’d have to seriously think about doing it. I love my kids and I’d give them the world if I could, but sometimes staying is worse. It takes a lot of strength and love, André, to even  _ think _ about leaving your kid even if you know it’s best for them - I bet your mom cried a lot even when she made the choice to go.”

There are silent tears flowing down André’s cheeks, and he sniffles even as he wipes his nose with the back of his hand. “Promise?” he asks after a while, practically begging for Bernd’s words to be real.

“I can’t promise anything, because I’m not your mom; but I can trust in what your dad said and I can tell you how I feel as a parent.”

“And don’t forget that even if you don’t have a mom now, you’ve got two dads,” Marc reminds André, tenderly wiping the boys tears with a tissue. “You love your Papa, don’t you? Don’t you like having him in your life?”

André nods his head vigorously as he blows his nose.

“And Manu loves you and loves being your Papa - even if he’s not your biological parent,” Bernd adds. “You like having Dad and Papa as your family, right?”

“Yes,” André replies softly.

“Family is who we decide to make our families,” Bernd says, dropping a kiss on the young man’s forehead. “Some kids have a mom and dad, some have only a mom or a dad, some have two moms or two dads, and some are orphans and have none; no-one’s family is more real than the other. As long as we love our families, that’s the most important thing. And believe me when I say your Dad and Papa love you more than anything in the world.”

André looks up at him, a question in his face. “How are you sure?” he asks hesitantly.

Bernd kisses him again, lets Marc do the same. “Because  _ we _ love you and we’re not even your parents - imagine how much more Kevin and Manu love you if we already love you this much and we’re just your uncles?”

André’s eyes go bright with more unshed tears. “If you’re my uncles, then Nik and Lex are my cousins?” he asks, hope starting to creep into this voice.

“They can be if you want them to be,” Bernd laughs gently. “And Jogi is practically your brother, so I guess that makes sense. Family is who we choose to be family, after all.”

André nods, gives both of them a shy hug, then snuggles into Bernd’s side, going back to watching the sleeping twins. “Can I hold whoever wakes up first?” he asks softly.

“Of course you can,” Bernd smiles.

“Just as long as you’re okay with changing their diaper if you need to,” Marc adds cheekily.

André’s eyes go wide. “Ew! I can’t change diapers - I don’t know how!”

“We’ll teach you,” Marc says with a straight face. “You’re a really smart boy so you’ll learn quickly.”

André wrinkles his nose and looks up at Bernd pleadingly. “Do I have to?”

“It’s what family does for each other,” Bernd nods solemnly. “We changed your diapers when you were a kid.”

André sighs, then nods. “Okay. But I hope they don’t need changing until you go home!”

Bernd laughs softly, trying not to shake the infant on his chest. Maybe André was going to be alright after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Agh. Sorry for the change in tone from light, fun fluff to this slightly more angsty feels. There's going to be a few of these, simply because growing up is never all just sunshine and good times, and the kids will have their own unique set of challenges, and I think it's important for the kids' development to experience them all. Despite this, there's also a lot of fun and fluff coming up, so I hope you stick around! :)


	10. Nothing to hide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coming out and family news.
> 
> Basically describes the type of scrutiny and lack of privacy that the Götze-Reus family have to go through after the media finds out about Marco and Mario's relationship. It's probably the one time either of them ever feel some sort of regret for being world famous footballers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge, huge thank you to [tmrs](http://archiveofourown.org/users/tmrs/pseuds/tmrs) who is so unselfish in her collaboration for the G-R family characters. Love ya! :*

Mario and Marco exchange one last encouraging look, take one more deep breath, then make their way around the corner of the building and towards the restaurant where Mario’s entire family are already waiting for them.

Marco is holding on to Jogi’s hand and Julian is clutched to Mario’s side as they quickly make their way to the reserved table, trying to ignore the customers who take out their phones to take photos or videos of them; Jogi goes to sit with Lennart as Julian hides between his grandparents.

Marco’s glad that Fabian got them a section that was towards the side of the bar with less other customers because then they had a relative amount of privacy. Last week, when they’d had dinner with Yvonne’s family, they’d been seated at a window facing the street and it had felt like every passer-by had stopped to take photos of them. It hadn’t been a good night for any of them, not when someone must have alerted the media and there were a number of paparazzi standing outside waiting for them as they were headed home. Marco had hated it so much that he had picked up Jogi just as Mario had done the same with Julian, and almost ran to their car. Neither of the boys had complained, hating the cameras just as much as them.

It was six months now; six months since he and Mario had had a long talk with Jogi and Julian and had made the decision to not actively hide their relationship anymore. Six months since Jogi started Grundschule with his full surname on his enrolment form so that the entire school knew that little Joachim was indeed the son of Marco Reus and Mario Götze; and six months since the media had found out about it.

The news cycle had come in waves. First the intrusiveness: people camped out outside Jogi’s school, people trailing them when they went out; it had been suffocating and more than once, both he and Mario had to stop from punching someone who got too close to the boys. The worst incident had been when a reporter had followed them into a restaurant (the owner had thankfully asked the reporter to leave or else he’d call the police and complain about them harassing his customers), but that had been towards the very beginning when any news was big news. After about two months of that, the “professional” media had seemed to have lost interest, and it’s been relatively quiet for the last four months. Now they mostly had to deal with the occasional gossip magazine and fans (they were world famous footballers, after all), and although more often than not they just wanted a photo to put on their social media accounts, Marco still feels wary about too many photos of Julian and Jogi being shared online.

Marco knows, of course, that even if they hadn’t formally confirmed their relationship via their agents (“...and they ask that you respect their privacy… blah blah blah…”) there was no way of keeping it secret forever - they were just much too high profile in Germany for that. They’d decided preempting the attention was better than being blindsided when the truth came out, but it doesn’t mean that he’s necessarily always happy about not having to hide anymore.

“Sorry we’re a bit late,” Marco says to Mario’s dad. “The kids were fighting a bit earlier.”

“Bad?” Jürgen asks, soothing back Julian’s hair from his forehead.

“Not really,” Mario says. “Jogi’s just being a bit territorial with some of his toys; he keeps telling Jule that they’re inside toys and he’s not allowed to take them to the cubby house.”

“Are they?”

“Depends what time of the day it is and how Jogi’s feeling,” Marco half grimaces, half smiles. “And today, they were inside toys.”

Jürgen sighs even as looks fondly over to where Lennart and Jogi are giggling together. “I hope he grows out of that soon.”

“I thought he already did!” Mario also sighs. “I know it’s what they do at this age, but with the baby coming soon, I’d kinda like them to be getting along a lot more before meeting their new sister.”

Jürgen’s eyes light up as Mario mentions their soon-to-be-there daughter. “What’s the news? Ashley is doing well?”

“Yeah,” Marco grins. “She’s sent more photos and she looks _big_ , even for a 28 week pregnant mom!”

“That’s good to hear,” Jürgen nods. “That’s the most important thing - that she and the baby are healthy. When are you flying back to see her again?”

“Next month,” Mario says, “for one last scan, and God-willing, everything will stay fine and it will be the last one before the baby is born.”

Jürgen nods again. “It will be very exciting, another girl in the family! I’m sure Patrice will be happy to finally get a new female cousin. She’s disappointed Felix and Leisel aren’t having another baby.”

“I heard my name?” Felix turns to look at them, even as Marco and Mario flinch slightly.

“Just talking about Patrice and how she’ll like having a female cousin,” Jürgen replies, trying to keep his tone light.

Even though they were extremely excited to have another baby in their extended family, Felix’s wife had suffered her second miscarriage just recently, and everyone was devastated for them, especially since Mario’s younger brother had confided to him that they were desperate to give Patrice a brother or sister.

“Yeah, she’ll enjoy that,” Felix responds, forcing a smile onto his face. “She wanted us to dress up as fairies the other day - it took me forever to convince her it would be just as fun if it was only her dressing up.”

“I would have paid good money to see you in a fairy dress,” Marco smiles, so grateful to Felix for not resenting them for being able to have another one.

Felix makes a face. “Agh. Don’t say that in front of Leisel please - she’ll probably find a way to make it happen.”

They laugh a little bit more and soon move past the awkward moment, and they enjoy the dinner much more than they did their one last week. At the end of the night, there aren’t even any paparazzi outside, and Marco and Mario are in such a good mood that they happily agree to take photos with the owners.

“That was a good night in the end,” Mario observes when they’re snuggled up on the couch at home. “And we probably won’t end up in the news.”

“We can hope,” Marco nods. “The owners didn’t look like the type to sell a story.”

“Not like there’s much to sell,” Mario snorts. “ _‘Former footballers have dinner in a restaurant’_ \- not exactly the most exciting news.”

Marco tightens his arms around his husband and buries his nose in the crook of Mario’s shoulder. “You know I’ll be honest with you, I’m actually glad that’s about the most exciting news they have about us now that we’ve come out. I rather like knowing we have nothing to hide anymore.”

Mario hums in agreement. “I hated having to hide us all that time, even if I knew it was the right thing to do,” he confesses. “I’m just glad we don’t have to pretend we’re just best friends, now. I _want_ the world to know you’re my soulmate.”

“I know Sunny,” Marco whispers in agreement, pressing his lips to warm skin and feeling Mario's shiver even in his veins. “Me too.”


	11. Model behaviour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jogi at 16/17, and introducing some important women in his life: his first love, (other) best friend and sister.

When Marco comes home after being away on a four day shift, the first thing he sees is his eldest son being slapped around the head by his best friend. He’s not worried, calling out a casual “hey guys” as he heads towards the kitchen to get a drink, ignoring the two teenagers practically wrestling in his living room.

“Oh, hi, Marco,” Maj says, looking at him slightly hesitant.

“Hey Dad!” Jogi calls out, trying to take advantage of Maj’s distraction by trying to crawl away from her.

“So what did Jogi do now?” Marco asks Maj, becoming more curious when Jogi gives an evil cackle and Maj goes bright red.

“Don’t!” Maj warns, trying to cover Jogi’s mouth with her hand, but the young man is much too quick for her.

“She has a crush on Zamira!” Jogi says quickly, laughing loudly despite Maj managing to kick him in the butt.

Marco’s eyebrows go up. “Zamira, huh?” he smiles. “Well, she _is_ very pretty.”

“And has a great body to boot,” Jogi adds. “Isn’t that right, Maj?”

Maj just throws a pillow at Jogi’s head in response.

“Well you guys can always go on double dates with Jogi and Alina if Zamira’s interested,” Marco points out.

For some reason, the laughter stops and the two teens just stare at each other awkwardly.

“What?” Marco asks, confused at the sudden change in behaviour.

Maj just looks down at the hands in her lap as Jogi mumbles out “I broke up with Alina.”

Marco’s sad for his son, but not really surprised at the news. In the year that Jogi and Alina had been together, there was barely a month that went past where they didn’t have a major argument, and it always seemed to centre around the same thing. Alina had been… _needy_ , and despite how much Jogi adored her, Marco could tell that his son had started to become less and less enthusiastic about spending time with his girlfriend as the months went past.

Like most young, new couples, they’d practically been attached at the hips when they first started dating, spending nearly every day together during summer break; and that had been okay because it was off season, but when Jogi’s training had re-started, spending so much time together was impossible. They were only 16, and Jogi knew that he was expected to finish well at school even while he was prioritising football, which meant that after school when he wasn’t training, he was buried in school books. Alina hadn’t liked the change at all, and Marco knew that they’d had a lot of arguments about it.

It didn’t help that neither Lennart or Maj - Jogi’s two best friends - hadn’t really liked Alina either, and the fact that Alina had never been invited to an extended family event was also a frequent sore point for the young couple, and probably explained why Maj was looking just as uncomfortable as Jogi.

(Marco remembered one time when Alina had been furious when she found out that Maj had gone to a picnic the previous weekend and she’d not been invited, practically accusing Jogi of caring more about his best friend than her. Jogi had been just as furious at her implications, and Mario had to take Alina home in case they ended up having a huge fight in their living room.)

“I’m sorry to hear,” Marco says, wondering how much of a sympathetic ear his son is expecting of him. “You’re going to be okay?”

Jogi shrugs. “Yeah, it was probably bound to happen anyway. She-, I think she expected more from me than what I could give. You saw how much we fought, it’s pretty obvious we weren’t gonna last.”

Maj looks up at him sharply then, surprised at Jogi’s admission as much as Marco is. “She should have been more understanding,” she says tentatively. “She knew you had school and training still, she should have realised that you wouldn’t have much free time and then be expected to spend it all with her.”

It’s an old argument, and Marco can see the set of his son’s mouth and heads off another potentially circular conversation about this same topic. “Well, if you ever just need to vent, that’s what me and Papa are for,” Marco offers. It’s the best he can offer as it is, because he knows there’s no real comfort that he can give; Jogi was right, after all, his relationship with Alina was very obviously heading for a break up.

“Thanks Dad,” Jogi says softly.

There’s an awkward pause before Maj nudges him with her shoulder. “Come on, we gotta finish our maths homework.”

Jogi groans but obediently reaches over to their school bags discarded on the floor.

“Where’s everyone else?” Marco asks, putting his glass in the sink so he can look for the rest of the family.

“Outside,” Jogi says, “making Astrid’s science project.”

Marco waves to the two teens and makes his way to the backyard where indeed Marco, Julian and Astrid are at the barbecue table with some brightly coloured paper and Christmas lights (?).

His daughter sees him first, and she runs up to him, and Marco just has enough time to brace himself before she jumps on him and presses her lips to his cheek. “Dad!” she laughs as Marco tickles her in response.

“What you doing there?” Marco asks, buzzing her on the cheek as well.

“I’m making a model on how the brain fires neurons!” Astrid says excitedly.

Marco blinks. “Really?” he asks as they get closer.

Someone - probably Julian as he’s the acknowledged artist in the family - had drawn a large side-silhouette of a person’s head with the brain outlined. And in the brain area, they’d stuck the different coloured Christmas lights. “Nice,” Marco says, not really knowing what he’s looking at. “How does it work?”

Julian finishes taping the last of the bits of lights, gives Marco an absent-minded kiss hello on the cheek, then points to the powerboard on the floor that has various sets of lights plugged into it.

“The different coloured lights are for the different areas in the brain that we use depending on what we do,” Julian explains. “We colour-coded them so that when Astrid does her explanation, she can either light them up all in one go or one by one.”

“That was my idea,” Astrid says proudly. “I’m going to talk about how the different parts of the brain control different senses and other functions. Papa can I show Dad?”

Mario, who had been in the process of taping some lights together as well, nods. “Let Jule finish off his drawings first then we’ll give it a test.”

“I’m done,” Julian says.

“Okay, step back Astrid, and we’ll give it a go.”

Mario walks towards the mains on the wall to switch the electricity on even as Astrid excitedly stands at the power board.

“This is the Occipital lobe that controls vision and perception,” she says, flicking a switch and making a small cluster of yellow lights go on.

“Whoop!” Julian laughs. “It works!”

“And this is the Frontal lobe that’s in charge of executive functions like thinking, problem solving, emotions and personality.”

A larger set of green lights go on, as do the rest as Astrid continues with her explanation. At the end of it, the entire brain area is lit up in bright colours and Astrid has a proud look on her face. Marco claps.

“Well done, baby,” he says, smiling when she beams at him with Mario’s toothy grin. “You’re going to get top marks for this for sure.”

“Thanks Daddy!” Astrid says, then remembers that she didn’t do it alone. “Papa and Jule helped!”

“Which means you better get top marks,” Julian says, ruffling his sister’s hair. “Come on, we better get this inside and in a box so the lights don’t get tangled.”

As his two younger children pack up the science project, Marco finally turns to Mario.

“Hey,” Marco says, wrapping an arm around his husband’s shoulders so that he can draw him close and kiss him hello. “Miss me?”

“Not really,” Mario says, then laughs when Marco narrows his eyes at him. “We’ve been busy.”

“Seems like a lot happened while I’ve been away,” Marco says as they make their way back in the house. “When did Jogi and Alina happen?”

“Just after you left, actually,” Mario sighs. “You know how I was supposed to drop Jogi off so they could watch a movie and I was going to take Jule and Astrid out as well? We didn’t even make it out of the house before he was throwing his phone at the floor because they’d been fighting again.”

“Yikes,” Marco winces.

“Yeah,” Mario agrees. “He stayed home, and when we got back from the movies they’d apparently already broken up. I think he made it official yesterday at school; he’s been sulking for the past three days.”

“That’s expected,” Marco says. “And Maj? Does Alina know she’s here? Because I can only imagine she’d give Jogi hell about putting his best friend first again.”

“Maj got dropped off after school, she didn’t come with us. Her dad’s picking her up at around 8, I think they’re just doing homework.”

“Well they hadn’t even started when I got home,” Marco smiles. “Jogi was teasing her about Zamira?”

Mario lets out a small laugh. “So we mentioned that some of the other kids had seen the photos that Lex took of them for his portfolio, and she was horrified. Honestly, those photos were great - Lex did such a good job with them! - but she got kinda upset that someone else had seen them. We finally figured out that she was blushing the whole time because she has a bit of a crush on Zamira and didn’t want her to see them.”

“Well if Zamira’s interested, those photos aren’t going to hurt, she looks fantastic in them.”

“I know! Did you know Maj got offered a contract after the studio saw the photos?”

“Really? She didn’t say anything!”

“She’s probably embarrassed to talk about it. Marc told me on Thursday, I must have forgotten to tell you. As I said, the photos were so good that they asked Lex who the model was, and asked permission to get her contact details so they could offer her an agency contract. She’s a bit young, and you know her dad’s a bit conservative and pretty strict about her finishing her Gymnasium, but they do a lot of high end teen fashion contracts that they thought she’d be perfect for if she didn’t want to do bikini wear and stuff.”

“Nice,” Marco says, impressed.

“I know, right? That exotic look she’s got going is gonna make her famous if she decides to pursue it.”

“Well good for her! Am I allowed to tease her about it, or is still all hush-hush?”

“Oh you can tease her,” Mario smiles. “I’ve been doing it all afternoon.”

“Nah, I’ll give her a break,” Marco says, smiling as they see both Maj and Jogi sprawled on the floor with their books and calculators out. “I’ll wait until it gets brought up again before I ask for her autograph.”

“Well, you can help me make dinner, then,” Mario says, heading straight for the fridge. “I’ve got some steaks seasoned and I was thinking warm potato salad?”

“The one with the mustard?” Marco’s eyes light up hopefully.

“I can make you your own batch because the kids don’t really like it,” Mario offers. “But you gotta boil the potatoes for me.”

“Yes chef!” Marco agrees, saluting like a sailor, making Mario pinch him.

“You’re an idiot but I’m glad you’re home,” Mario says, kissing him quickly before shoving a paper bag full of potatoes at him.

Marco laughs, pulls Mario back to him for another quick kiss, then heads to the sink to wash the potatoes.

It was always good to be home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, huge thank you to my lovely [tmrs](http://archiveofourown.org/users/tmrs/pseuds/tmrs) who helped bring Maj and Astrid to life.
> 
> You can read more about how Jogi and Maj met in **tmrs'** story [Count on me](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8743498).


	12. Just like my fathers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some tSL twins cuteness and stubbornness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw a photo of six year old twins and it made me think of Lex and Nik, so here we are :D

“I’m going assume, that that was my brother’s idea,” Daniel says in a surprisingly neutral tone.

Marc-Andre gives his brother-in-law an exasperated shrug. “You’re not going to believe this, but only partially. The boys actually chose that cut for themselves. ”

The elder Leno brother shrugs. “O well, you have to admit they do look really cute.”

That at least, Marc can agree with. When Bernd had suggested they let the twins get a different haircut to the familiar salad-bowl cut that every child up to the age of six always had, Marc agreed. When they’d promised the boys that they’d let them choose their own haircuts, they hadn’t been prepared for the twins to tell the barber that they wanted to look like _them_ , requesting that they bring up the photos of them playing for the U17s. At that particular time, neither he nor Bernd (but more him, if Marc is being honest with himself) had the best haircuts and the fact that Niklas and Alexei chose those styles truly baffled him. Especially because they were now happily posing for Bernd, following instructions from their cousins and channeling their inner Zoolander as their Papa took photos to post on their Instagram account.

“How much product do they actually have in their hair?” Daniel asks, this time sounding slightly curious. “Because that looks like a lot from here and I’m not sure if it’s good for the boys.”

“The hairdresser said they use kid-friendly products so I’m going to assume it’s pretty safe,” Marc replies, coming over when Bernd calls out to him.

“Which one do you think?” Bernd asks, flicking through the photos he’d just taken, Niklas and Alexei crowding around him to see which one he likes best.

He looks at them thoughtfully, then chooses the close up. “You can see your hair better in this one.”

The twins agree and Bernd uploads it to Instagram. “You know you’re not going to be able to have this hair everyday,” Bernd warns them.

“Why not?” Niklas frowns, patting his head gently. “I like it.”

“Did you see how long it took the hairdresser to style it?” Marc reminds him. “Are you going to wake up early enough every day so that you have nice hair for school?”

“But you or Papa will be the one fixing it!” Alexei says, hands caressing his styled hair. “It shouldn’t take _that_ long!”

“You still have to be awake when we fix it, and you say that now, but I bet it takes forever to get it just the way you like it.”

Alexei frowns at them. “We’ll wake up,” he says confidently.

“I’m sure you will,” Daniel says with a smile, knowing first hand from his own kids that waking them up just in time to hurriedly get them ready for school was already difficult, so he’s _not_ confident the Niklas and Alexei would actually wake up even earlier than normal.

The twins surprise them by waking up a little bit earlier for a whole week; after that they grumble their way through the morning routine, which isn't a surprise because getting them to go to bed was practically a battle sometimes.

“But I’m not even sleepy yet!” Niklas protests one night, not understanding why he has to be asleep, let alone in bed, by nine.

“You say that now,” Marc says sternly, standing over their elder twin as Bernd does the same to Alexei in the other room. If they didn’t stay until lights out, the twins would either sneak into each others room or stay up playing way past their bedtime. “But then tomorrow morning you don’t want to get up. Remember, you have training tomorrow - if you don’t sleep, how are you going to have enough energy to play football?”

Niklas is obviously not at all impressed with Marc’s logic. “It’s so early,” he whines again instead of answering the question, “I’m not even sleepy.”

“Nik,” Marc says, trying not to grind his teeth, “I’m going to say goodnight to Lex, when I come back, I kinda expect you to be in bed and the lights turned down, okay?”

Niklas just scowls some more.

When Marc makes his way into Alexei’s room, he almost smirks because Bernd is having even less luck than him.

“Do I need to ground you before you go to sleep?” Bernd is asking, not even bothering to hide the frustration in his voice. “I’m not going over this again. Eight is sleep time, you can play again tomorrow.”

If possible, Alexei looks even more mulish than even Niklas managed, and Marc wonders not for the first time whether the boys were actually psychically linked even if they weren’t genetically related; there’s just no other explanation for why they could coordinate the things they did like this without even talking about it first.

“But I’m not sleepy,” Alexei whines and Marc rolls his eyes even as he steps up to his younger son’s bed.

“Lex, you heard Papa, sleep time,” he says, bending down to give the scowling boy a kiss on the forehead. “Goodnight bubba, we’re going to turn the lights off now.”

Marc isn’t at all surprised when Alexei’s scowl deepens, even as he mumbles “goodnight Papa, night Daddy” and kisses Bernd on the cheek.

They head into Niklas’s room to repeat the goodnights, and Marc’s pleasantly surprised that their elder son had actually done as he’s told, already tucked in with only his night light on.

“Ten Euros says the first light goes on in ten minutes,” Bernd says softly as they make their way downstairs.

“Nah, they know better than to do it so soon - I say half an hour at least.”

“You’re being too optimistic. Ten minutes - max.”

“Okay let’s make it a real bet,” Marc suggests. “Loser has to wake the boys up and get them ready for school on their own.”

Bernd has a moment of hesitation, then narrows his eyes when he sees Marc’s smug expression. “You’re on.”

Marc just grins; he was going to enjoy being able to sleep in tomorrow morning.


	13. Business class

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jogi and Jule get to visit Papa while he's in Chicago, and it's even better because Nik and Lex are coming along too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For my darling **tmrs** , who requested big brother Jogi. :*

The plane lurches violently and Marco’s right hand clutches at the armrest of his chair even as his left arm tightens ever so slightly around Astrid, who, miraculously, is still sleeping soundly on his chest. Next to him, Bernd is frowning across the aisle of the business class cabin as Niklas sniffles and sneezes again, rubbing his runny nose with the sleeve of his hoody.

Marco nudges his friend to get this attention. “Once the seatbelt sign goes off, get Jogi to swap with you so you can sit with Nik.”

Bernd looks like he’s tempted, but then he shakes his head. “There’s still another six hours on this flight, Jogi’ll get bored if he doesn’t get to sit with the boys. I’ll just go there and sit with him if he needs me.”

Niklas had started sneezing almost as soon as the plane had left Düsseldorf airport, and halfway into their 11+ hours journey, the poor boy was sneezing almost nonstop and looking miserable. Bernd had wrapped both twins in their thicker clothes and crammed beanies on them, but for Niklas it was already too late as he was already showing symptoms of having caught cold on the plane.

Two months ago, Mario had come home and excitedly shoved a printout under Marco’s nose, claiming that he and Marc-André were going to a 3 day Baking Conference in Chicago, and that they should all come for the week.

Neither Bernd nor Marco were keen on having to look after four young boys who’d use the excuse of a baking and sweets conference to get all hopped up on sugar, so they’d all agreed that Mario and Marc-André would go first, then the rest of them would fly out on the last day and they’d make a holiday out of the rest of the week.

The boys had been incredibly excited for their first joint holiday overseas - and despite the fact that the twins were a little too young to understand anything other than that Daddy had gone to Chicago for work and they were going to meet up with him - they’d actually been quite well-behaved so far, content to just play the inflight games with each other and read the books that they’d brought along. Marco’s also thankful that Astrid seemed to be content to sleep the whole flight over, because if she’d caught cold just like Niklas had, it would have been a miserable flight.

It’s another hour of turbulence and by the end of it, Marco’s feeling queasy, which is why he ends up asking Jogi to swap with Bernd anyway.

“Jogi can hold Astrid while I go to the toilet,” Marco says when Bernd protests. “You go look after Nik - poor kid looks like he’s going to pass out.”

Jogi’s too happy to be big brother for Astrid when they ask him, and even though Bernd stays with him while Marco is in the toilets, Jogi’s really conscious of making sure his seatbelt is strapped in and he’s hold Astrid carefully. Marco takes his time just breathing and washing his hands, wrinkling his nose at the musty cabin smell that all airplanes have, and then heads back to find Jogi baby-chatting to Astrid who’s woken up.

“Do you want me to take her?” he asks, settling down in his seat.

Jogi shakes his head. “I can play with her while she’s awake.”

Marco smiles proudly, dropping a kiss to both his kids’ foreheads, then looks to see how Julian is doing. His second son is giggling away with Alexei who must have taken Jogi’s spot, because Bernd is sitting behind them with Niklas curled into his chest, whimpering and sniffling still. It’s a surprisingly uneventful flight and Marco admits that having Jogi next to him willing to look after his baby sister actually made things easier, since he rarely needed to see how Julian was doing what with Bernd there.

By the time they land at O’Hare airport though, everyone just wants to get off. Jogi started fidgeting a couple of hours before their descent, Alexei and Julian had slept for the final third of their flight and were grumpy waking up, and Niklas looked even more miserable.

“I’m glad Sunny and Marc are meeting us,” Marco murmurs to Bernd once they get all their luggage and Astrid is in her pram. “I don’t think I could handle trying to get through here with the kids the way the are right now.”

Bernd just nods because he’s got Niklas in his arms clinging to him still. Even though the boys are all dragging their own little suitcases, it’s still something of an adventure trying to navigate the throng with so many young kids. Marco is so relieved when they spot Marc-André and Mario heading towards them.

“Papa!” Julian cries happily, ignoring Marco telling him not to run off and running off anyway. Luckily Mario and Marc-André had already seen them as well, and Mario catches their younger son quickly.

“Flight okay?” Mario asks when they’re in their taxi on the way to the hotel.

“Mostly,” Marco nods. “Jogi helped me with Astrid when Bernd had to go sit with Nik. He’s a really good big brother.”

Mario ruffles Jogi’s hair fondly, a proud smile on his face even as their eldest blushes at the praise. “And what about you, Jule? Did you behave on the flight? What did you do the whole time?”

“I played games and read my book and played with Lex and ate _everything_ even though the food wasn’t as nice as yours and slept some too,” Julian says all in one breath, making Mario laugh.

“So you kept yourself occupied so that Dad and Jogi could look after Astrid? That was very considerate of you.”

“What does that mean? Does it mean that I looked after Astrid too?”

“ _Noooo_ ,” Jogi drawls in his most adult voice. “It means you helped make it easy for me and Daddy to look after Astrid, but you didn’t look after her _directly_.”

Julian tips his hair to the side, thinking about his brother’s explanation then deciding he liked it. “I’m considerate and helpful,” he says in a firm voice, but looks at his family with a question on his face.

“Very considerate and helpful,” Marco agrees, nudging Jogi lightly who’s sitting next to him.   

“I guess so,” Jogi agrees reluctantly. But when Julian beams at his brother, Marco can feel his eldest son melt a little and Jogi starts talking to Julian about what they want to see now that they’d landed. He feels so suddenly proud of Jogi for taking his big brother duties so seriously. Considering Jogi was still arguing with Julian over his toys this time last year, Marco’s amazed at how quickly their eldest had grown up in such a short period of time. And from the adoring look on Mario’s face, Marco knows his husband is thinking exactly the same thing.

_Life_ , he thinks when their eyes meet and they share a smile, _doesn’t get better than this_.


	14. Astrid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jogi and Julian meet their baby sister

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For **Engelchen_Gotzeus_09** who requested this scene, and for **tmrs** who requested Astrid be created - I hope you both like it :)

Jogi is dreaming about being a pirate when he gets woken by his Opa. He knows it’s nearly time to wake up anyway because he can see the orange sun peaking out from his curtains; he blinks blearily. “Opa?”

“Your Papa and Daddy called and they want to introduce you to someone,” Opa says, a big smile on his face.

It takes a few seconds for Jogi to figure out what Opa means, but when he does, he practically jumps up from his bed in excitement. “My sister is born?” he asks excitedly, tripping over his slippers and falling face first onto the carpet. “Ouch!”

“Careful Jogi! Don’t run.” Opa helps him up, but Jogi runs out of his room and down the stairs to where Oma is sitting with the laptop. “Papa!”

From the laptop he can see Papa and Daddy standing right behind him; Papa has a bundle of blankets in his arms.

“Good morning Jogi,” Papa says softly, a huge smile on his face.

“Morning Papa morning Daddy is that her is that my sister is she born now can I see her!” The words come out all in a rush in his excitement. Daddy and Papa chuckle.

“Wait just a few more minutes until Jule comes down,” Daddy says, “so you can meet her at the same time.

Jogi is impatient to meet his sister already though, so he yells out “JULIAN! JULE! COME ON! HURRY!” then covers his mouth with his hands when he realises that he’s just yelled in Oma’s ears.

“Jogi!” Daddy, Papa and Oma all say at the same time, and Jogi hunches his shoulders. “Sorry Oma,” he mumbles in apology.

“Patience son,” Daddy says, frowning slightly, “you can wait a couple more seconds.”

Jogi nods because he knows he shouldn’t have done that, and is about to ask Oma to make hot chocolate for him while they wait for Julian who is taking  _ so long _ to wake up, when they hear a little voice call out “I’m coming! I’m coming!”

Julian skids to stop at the table and takes a seat next to Jogi, practically climbing on the table, Opa coming up to stand behind them. “Daddy! Papa! Can we see her?”

Daddy reaches out over Papa’s shoulder to get the phone, then he points the camera at the bundle in Papa’s arms so that they can see the tiny pink and slightly wrinkly face. Oma makes a cooing sound, and Jogi grins, so happy to finally meet his sister.

“Say hello to Astrid,” Daddy says softly.

“Oh!” Jogi says, turning to his Oma who’s got tears in her eyes. “Just like you, Oma.”

“Just like me,” Oma agrees, smiling even though she looks like she’s about to start crying. Jogi hugs her and she kisses him on the cheek, laughing softly.

“Hi Astrid,” Julian says softly, leaning towards the monitor and tapping his finger at Astrid’s cheek. “My name is Jule and I’m your big brother.”

“She can’t see us yet,” Jogi tells his brother, remembering some things he read when he and Oma were looking up  stuff about newborn babies the other day. “But she can hear us - but probably not so well because we’re on video call. We’ll have to introduce ourselves again when she comes home with Daddy and Papa.” 

“Okay,” Julian says, still looking at Astrid on the computer.

“When are you coming home?” Opa asks.

“As soon as we get the clearance from the doctors and the paperwork is all signed. If it goes as quickly as with Jogi, two weeks.”

“Will we call every night still?” Jogi asks. He’s pretty sure Daddy and Papa are going to be very busy looking after Astrid and all the other things they need to do before the doctors and government people let her come on a plane, but he doesn’t think he can wait two whole weeks to talk to them again.

“Of course,” Papa says, turning the camera so that it’s pointing at the three of them this time. “We’ll call as much as we can, but we’ll be home soon.”

Jogi feels like that the weeks leading up to Daddy, Papa and Astrid coming home take forever, and he’s fidgety the whole morning that Opa goes to pick them up from the airport. Even Julian’s been biting his nails all morning, and his brother starts screaming loudly once they hear the car pull up in front of the house, making Oma tell them not to yell inside the house.

Jogi can’t really blame Julian for being so excited because he’s missed Daddy and Papa too in the month they’d been away too, so it’s so good to finally have their family complete again.

There are a lot of hugs and kisses once they come inside and very soon Daddy sets the baby carrier on the floor and everyone crowds around when he pulls the blanket lower so they can see Astrid’s whole face and not just her eyes.

Seeing Astrid in person is very different. For one thing, she’s tiny; tinier than even when Papa was holding her over the video call. Julian must be thinking the same, because he looks confused.

“She’s so small,” Julian says, wrinkling his nose. “How are we supposed to be play with her? She’s going to break if I hold her.”

Papa chuckles and smoothes Julian’s hair. “You’re not going to break her just by holding her, and she’s probably not going to want to play with you for at least a couple of months yet.”

“Why not?”

Jogi knows the answer to this so he says, “Because she’s a newborn and the only thing newborns do is drink milk, sleep and cry. And poop.”

All the adults laugh and Jogi feels himself blushing a little bit. “It’s true!”

“Yes it is,” Daddy agrees. “You did your reading up on newborns, Jogi?”

“Oma helped me look it up on the internet; if I’m going to be a big brother again, I have to know these things!”

Daddy gives him a proud grin, and Jogi blushes some more. “And you’re gonna help Jule be a big brother too, yeah? You guys are gonna be the best big brothers to Astrid.”

“Well yeah,” Julian pipes in, “I don’t want to be the  _ worst _ big brother - that would be  _ bad! _ ”

Jogi thinks that Jule is being too simple about the whole big brother thing, but then again, Jule was only five-and-a-half so he didn’t really understand these things fully yet. “Can I kiss her or will she wake up?” Jogi remembers to ask before actually doing it.

“Gently,” Papa smiles.

Astrid is warm and her cheek is so soft and she sniffles a little bit when Jogi kisses her. “Hi baby,” he whispers softly, and all of a sudden his chest feels really full and he has tears in his eyes. “We’ve been waiting for you forever; I’m so glad you’re here now.”

“Nine months is a very long time,” Julian agrees, also giving Astrid a soft kiss. “But we’re happy you’re home and I hope you like your new cot - me and Jogi helped Daddy set it up for you.”

Their parents let him and Julian pet Astrid over for a little bit longer before they have to let Oma and Opa have their turn to say hello properly, then the four of them head into the kitchen so that they can have hot drinks.

“We missed you both so much,” Papa says, hugging him tightly and squishing his face into Jogi’s cheek. Jogi can see that Julian is clinging to Daddy like a koala but Daddy doesn’t seem to mind, kissing Julian all over his face.

“I wish we could have gone with you; I didn’t really like us being separated for so long,” Jogi admits softly.

“Don’t worry, we’re home now - and with Astrid; we’re all complete again.”

A complete family. Just perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Astrid is born via surrogacy and her biological father is Mario. Mario and Marco travel to the USA for this, hence why they were away for so long. I don't actually know how long the process of post-birth signing over would be, so the timeframes are only guesses.


	15. Playground mishaps

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is me, stress posting - as opposed to stress _writing_ , for once. Ugh, assessments kill me.
> 
> Anyway, the twins are around 6 in this chapter.

“NO! NIKLAS!”

Mario spins on his heels when André lets out a horrified yell and sprints past him towards the playground, heart sinking to his shoes when he sees someone - obviously Bernd and Marc-André’s elder son - crumpled on the ground and the other children hanging out of the cubby house, all with terrified expressions on their faces.

Mario runs quickly to where André is kneeling beside the sobbing Niklas, catching Alexei around the waist before the young boy can throw himself at his injured twin.

“Nik! Nik!” Alexei is calling, trying to break out of Mario’s hold as Julian and Jogi stand close by, both looking just as scared.

“Hey hey, it’s okay, Lex, ” Mario says, holding the younger twin and trying to get him to focus. “He’s going to be okay, look - he’s alive, just a little hurt. But you can’t go to him because we need to take him to the hospital to look after his injuries, okay?” He strokes Alexei’s back, trying to calm him, even as André is trying to assess just how badly Niklas is hurt. “I need to go to Nik now, so will you promise to stay here with Jule and Jogi while I check on your brother?”

Alexei’s eyes haven’t left his twin and his eyes are filling with tears as he listens to Niklas whimper in pain, but he nods, probably realising that it’s better to let Mario look after his brother.

“I’m proud of you for being brave,” Mario says, pressing a kiss on Alexei’s forehead. He stands, motioning for Jogi and Julian to come closer, and as his sons huddle with Alexei, he takes an extra second to drop kisses in their hair as well, knowing it must have been terrifying to see their friend fall out of the cubby house like that.

André is helping Niklas up just as Mario turns his full attention to the injured boy. “Niklas, how are you feeling, little man?” he asks gently.

Niklas hiccups, cradling his injured side, left arm already turning purple. “Hurts,” he whimpers, tears tracking down his face.

“I know it does,” Mario says, pushing the young boy’s hair back to also brush his lips against his forehead. “But we’re going to go to see a doctor so he can have a look at it and fix it for you. I’ll call your Dad and Papa and ask them to meet us, okay?”

“Okay,” Niklas agrees in a tiny voice, hunching in even more in himself.

“What do you think?” he asks André.

“He landed on his arm,” André says, frowning. “I don’t think it’s broken, but it’s a bit hard to tell when there’s so much bruising already.”

Mario nods, agreeing with the assessment. “I’m going to make a sling then take Nik to the hospital to get an x-ray, just in case,” Mario says, “can you stay here with the boys?” Mario's suddenly very glad that Marco had taken Astrid out on a daddy-daughter date, because the logistics of having to take her with him would have been a headache.

“Sure.” André presses a kiss to Niklas’ cheek. “You’re going to be fine, Nik,” he says. “I’ll come visit you just as soon as I can and we can practice free kicks together, okay?”

“Okay,” Niklas says again, eyes now dry but still in so much pain.

Mario secures Niklas’ arm as best as he can, thankful that they’d all made sure that all of them had taken Children’s First Aid when they’d all started having kids, and he’s got Niklas bundled into Julian’s booster chair and on the way to the hospital before he calls Marc-André and Bernd.

He gets them as they’re hopping into their car, and he can hear Bernd telling Marc to put the phone on speaker.

“He’s fine, guys,” he tries to reassure them. “And being really brave. Nik, say hi to your Dad and Papa.”

“Daddy, Papa,” Niklas, says just loud enough to get picked up by the car’s microphone, and Mario can hear one of the former goalie’s inhale sharply because it’s obvious that the young boy is in pain.

“Hey bubba,” Bernd says in his most gentle tone. “You’re gonna be fine. Daddy and I will be there when you and Uncle Mario arrive at the hospital. You’ve been so brave so far, just a little bit longer, okay?”

“Okay Papa,” Niklas hiccups, but Mario can see through the rearview mirror that the elder twin is only just holding back the tears from coming again.

“We’ll see you guys at the E & A,” Mario says, “I’ll call as soon as I park.”

“Thanks Mar,” Marc says, before calling out “love you Nik” then hanging up.

Marc-André and Bernd are waiting nervously just outside the hospital doors when they arrive, and Niklas bursts into tears when he sees his parents, running straight to them despite the sling.

“It hurts,” he cries into Bernd’s shoulder, even as Mario and Marc make their way to the reception to check Niklas in for treatment.

“André is at home with the other boys, so I can stay if you want,” Mario offers once the triage nurse sees to Niklas.

“No, it should be fine,” Marc says. “Thanks for wrapping him up and taking him here. Do you know what happened?”

“Not really,” Mario grimaces. “We didn’t really have time to properly ask the boys how he fell out. They weren’t doing anything new; Lex was filming and the others were his actors - they must have been too close to the door and didn’t realise it. Sorry,” Mario apologises. “André and I were kicking the ball around - I should have been paying more attention.”

“It’s not your fault,” Marc sighs. “It’s not the first time, you know. Lex had Nik be a ninja once, and Nik kicked a _tree_ ; we were lucky it was only a sprained ankle.”

“Geez,” Mario half laughs, still feeling guilty that Niklas got hurt on his watch.

“And another time Lex jumped in the pool with my camera because he wanted to film a live shot himself - he didn’t realise that they had specific equipment like GoPros for that and thought any camera would do.”

“Are you serious?” Mario asks in disbelief.

“Bernd only just managed to catch him before he hit the water,” Marc grimaces at the memory. “We had to buy him a waterproof camera after that and enrol him in a beginners course - just so he’d learn about camera safety.”

“These kids are gonna be the death of us,” Mario says, shaking his head. “I better go home then. The boys were pretty freaked out, especially Lex.”

“Video call me once you get home so I can talk to him?” Marc asks as Mario gets ready to leave. “I’d rather they not both get traumatised over this.”

“Of course,” Mario nods.

The boys are all huddled together on the couch when he gets home, quietly watching cartoons, André sitting nearby. Mario goes straight to Alexei, taking out his phone to call Marc and letting the frightened twin talk to his parents. By this time, Niklas had already come out from getting an x-ray from his arm and they were just waiting for the results.

“We’ll be there soon, bubba,” Marc is saying to Alexei. “And you’ll see, Nik is fine; no more tears, okay?”

“Okay,” Alexei nods, before hanging up the call and giving Mario his phone back.

But it takes a little bit longer, and Kevin is already picking André up before they even get the call back from Marc or Bernd to say they were on the way.

“Oh no, poor Nik,” Kevin says when Mario tells him what happened. “Do you want me to take Lex to the hospital? That way they don’t have to swing by later and they can just go home?”

“When was the last time you had a booster seat in your car, Kev?” Mario asks in amusement.

Kevin blinks, then makes a face. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”

Mario laughs lightly. “Thanks for the offer though. I can always take the Rover and drop Lex off myself, we have the extra old boosters for the boys' cousins anyway.”

Marc and Bernd arrive not soon after to pick Alexei up.

“How is he?” Mario asks Marc as Alexei packs his backpack and  says goodbye to Julian and Jogi.

“A crack, unfortunately,” Marc confirms, sighing. “He has to wear a cast but he’s taking it well - one of the nurses drew a Spiderman cartoon on it for him and he loves it.”

“That’s good,” Mario says, “but that means he’ll miss out on training for a few weeks.”

“Yeah,  _that_ he’s pretty annoyed about, but o well, what can you do?” Marc shrugs.

“Well let us know if you aren’t coming in tomorrow, I’ll just have a simple menu. We can do the three salads we were planning last month - the chicken pesto is always a hit.”

“I should be in; Bernd will stay home if Nik still can’t go to school tomorrow but I doubt he’ll want to miss the chance to show off his cast.”

Alexei says his goodbye to Mario then, and after one last hug, Mario turns to his own sons. “Alright boys, who’s feeling lazy like me and just wants to order pizza?”

Julian and Jogi cheer and Mario smiles at them fondly - they’ve had a stressful afternoon and definitely deserved the treat.


	16. Pancakes and plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bernd and his rather special birthday plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Domestic fluff with hints of barely-there smutty teasing.

“BERND LENO!”

Bernd freezes, giving Alexei and Niklas a wide-eyed guilty look, then quickly clicks the off button on the tablet and shoves it underneath his pillow.

“Hide me!” he says, grabbing a giggling Niklas by the waist and sitting the little boy down on his stomach. Alexei has managed to throw a pillow on Bernd’s head just as they hear the sound of feet stomping into the room.

“Boys, where’s Papa?” Marc-André asks, ignoring the fact that Bernd’s feet are sticking out from underneath the blankets.

“He’s not here!” Alexei giggles, pressing down on the pillow covering Bernd’s face.

“Well if he’s not here, then we can’t have pancakes,” Marc says in a pretend-sad voice

“‘Nana pancakes?” Niklas asks excitedly, and Bernd tries not to groan in pain at his son bouncing on his stomach.

“That’s right,” Marc says, “Daddy’s special pancakes that he makes only for special occasions.”

“Like Papa’s birthday!” Niklas claps.

“Yeah. But if we don’t know where Papa is, we can’t have birthday pancakes…”

“Papa’s here! Papa’s here!” Alexei squeals, quickly taking the pillow off Bernd’s head even as Niklas rolls off his stomach. “Here’s Papa!”

“Hi!” Bernd waves almost shyly.

Marc’s trying really hard not to crack a smile. “You said you were just going to finish the episode then come down. It’s been half an hour,” he says mock-sternly.

“Sorry, but we really wanted to know what happened to the blue dragon and had to watch the next episode.”

“He went into the ocean, Daddy!” Niklas explains, bouncing again. “He can breathe fire under the ocean because he’s a _water_ dragon!”

“Wow, that’s so cool,” Marc smiles. “So he was a special dragon after all?”

“Yeah! And he should have special pancakes too!”

“You’ll have to ask Papa because they’re his birthday pancakes.”

The twins look at Bernd expectantly, and he pretends to think. “Hmmm. We’ll have to see if Daddy made enough for all of us before we can give some away.” He sits up and rolls off the bed. “Shall we go?”

Niklas and Alexei start squealing again in excitement, jumping in their parents’ arms to be carried downstairs.

“You two are old enough to walk,” Bernd laughs.

“Noooooo,” Niklas says, clinging harder, “carry me.”

Bernd just laughs some more, balancing his elder son on his hip even as he follows Marc and Alexei downstairs.

In the kitchen, the dining table is already set up with plates and mugs and all sorts of fruit and hot food to eat with the pancakes.

“What’s with them?” he asks Marc, pointing at the tripods strategically placed around the table.

“Easier so that we don’t have to take photos; I’ve got them on timer.”

Bernd hums, then goes to get hot drinks for everyone while Marc gets the pancakes warming in the oven. He places the stack in the middle, then places ‘4’ and ‘0’ candles right on the top before lighting them.

“Okay boys, are you going to sing Happy Birthday for Papa?”

The twins sing enthusiastically, then cheer when Bernd blows out the candles, everything getting captured automatically by Marc’s cameras.

“Birthday kisses,” Bernd requests, leaning over the cake and across the table so he can kiss Niklas and Marc. He then sits back as Alexei wraps his arms around his neck and gives his Papa a loud kiss on the mouth.

It’s a nice informal breakfast and Bernd feels warm with happiness. They’ll be driving down to Stuttgart in a couple of hours anyway for the big birthday dinner with family and friends, but for now they’re happy to stay in their pajamas and enjoy the birthday feast.

When Marc starts to bring the dirty plates to the sink, Bernd stands up as well to make more hot drinks.

“You think we should give them a bath before we go or wait until we get to the penthouse?” Marc asks.

“Wait. We’ll get there in enough time. And that way we can just put them straight to bed when we get home.”

“You think we’ll get home too late to give them another bath?”

“Late enough.”

“Late enough from what?” Marc asks from where he’s stacking the dishwasher.

Bernd completely understands Marc’s slightly confused look since dinner was at  17.00 and they should be home well in time to bathe the boys if they needed to, but since it was his birthday…

Bernd finishes the boys’ hot chocolate and places them on the dining table, then strolls over to Marc, only stopping when he’s so close that he can feel their body heat through their clothes. “I was hoping to take advantage of the last few hours of it being my birthday,” he says, tipping his head to one side. “But if you’d rather spend that time giving the boys a bath, I guess I can get my birthday present from you right _now_.”

His tone is light, but Bernd can almost see the exact moment Marc-André remembers that morning a couple of weeks back when they’d stood in this exact same position, the twins having breakfast and blissfully unaware of what exactly their parents were doing hidden behind the breakfast bar. Bernd smirks when Marc’s eyes widen and darken, mouth falling open in shock.

“Bernd. Gawd. What.”

Bernd’s steps closer so that the entire lower halves of their bodies are touching. “My birthday present? Now or later?” he asks teasingly.

Marc lets out a small groan. “You’re right,” he agrees in a strangled voice, “we should be able to just put the kids to bed when we get home.”

Bernd just grins, then leans forward to grind against Marc momentarily, chuckling when Marc gasps but involuntarily reaches out to pull him closer by the hips. He steps away, grinning rather stupidly at the disappointed look on Marc’s face that’s also tinged with relief when Bernd heads back to the dining table.

_Happy birthday to me._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Bernd living up to his [exhibitionist tendencies](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8204710/chapters/18796546).


	17. Birds and Bees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The twins have an important conversation with their dads

Niklas sits patiently and waits for his parents to say something. So far they’ve spent the last two minutes blinking at them.

“This is actually harder than I thought it would be,” Papa finally says to Dad.

“I know, right?” Dad agrees, looking slightly confused. “Where do we even start?”

“Do you want us to start?” Alexei offers, and Niklas snorts. This ‘Sex Talk’ really isn’t going the way he thought it would.

Papa and Dad just look even more confused. “How is that supposed to work?”

“I don’t know, but I think this is where you’re supposed to start using words like ‘safe sex’ and ‘protection’ and ‘not ‘til you’re thirty’.”

“Sixteen,” Papa corrects. “Not ‘til you’re sixteen.”

“At least,” Dad adds firmly. “I know you’re both physically mature enough to be having sex and we’re confident you both already know you’re supposed to be using protection anyway, but fourteen is still too young to even understand the emotional side of it all.”

Oh okay, this is definitely different. “Emotional?” Niklas asks.

“Sex isn’t just about, you know, the act - there’s a lot of emotional consequences that you won’t get told about just from the internet or other people your age who are already doing it,” Papa says. “And really, that’s the part we’re more worried you don’t know about.”

Considering how serious both Daddy and Papa look at the moment, Niklas finds himself becoming just as serious. Given their history, he wonders if his parents are talking about themselves.

Alexei must think the same thing, because he asks mildly, “speaking from experience?”

Daddy and Papa don’t even deny it.

“Even though everything worked out in the end, I can almost guarantee that most of the time, our story is going to be the exception,” Dad says. “It’s a mistake to think that you can’t get affected emotionally whenever you have sex, and I really don’t want you guys to go through the angst that we did.”

Niklas doesn’t really have a response to that, so he tries for some teasing so that they can stop being so serious. “I didn’t think you even knew each other at fourteen.”

“We didn’t,” Dad confirms, “but that’s not what I meant.”

Niklas nods. “I know, Dad.”

“All we’re saying is that think about it first before you decide that just because all your friends are, then you should be too,” Papa adds. “There’s no real rush, you guys are still so young; wait ‘til you’re really ready.”

“You don’t have to worry, Pa, we know we’re still a bit too young,” Alexei says, speaking for the both of them. Niklas doesn’t mind, because despite already going through puberty and how annoying all the insistent hormones could be, he wasn’t in any hurry. Besides, he wasn’t even dating yet.

“You know you can always come to us first, right?” Dad asks, sounding relieved. “No matter how embarrassed you feel at the time, we’d rather you know you can always talk to us if you need anything. And when we say ‘anything’, we actually do mean ‘anything’.”

“You don’t have to worry about that either,” Alexei grins. “We’ll just raid your supplies in your bathroom - we know where you keep everything.”

“Alexei!” Papa exclaims, blushing.

“And don’t forget the bedside table,” Niklas adds, also grinning.

“Niklas!” It’s Daddy this time, and he’s just as red as Papa.

Niklas laughs and high-fives his brother.

“You two are awful,” Papa complains, but he’s smiling now as well. “You’re not supposed to know about those.”

Niklas snorts. “It’s not like we don’t know that you have sex, and considering you’re both, you know, _guys_ , you obviously need supplies. I’d be more worried if you _didn’t_ have anything because then what would you be using?”

Niklas makes a face; that wasn’t a mental image he needed. “ _EWW_ Lex, gross.”

Alexei laughs because he’s evil. “But I do have a point.”

Daddy groans and covers his eyes, but pretty soon he’s laughing too so Niklas knows everything’s good. “Papa’s right, you two are awful.”

“Put it this way, Dad; how many kids do you know have parents who can give them advice on sex with both boys and girls?” Alexei adds fondly. “I think me and Nik are pretty lucky we don’t have worry about either of you having a heart attack or kicking us out if we told you we weren’t strictly straight.”

Niklas frowns, remembering how things are at school, how they and some other students had to suffer some subtle bullying because there were quite a few homophobes in their school. Although bringing it up had killed the mood a little, Alexei was right; they had the full support of both their parents and not everyone was as lucky as them.

There’s a slightly awkward and emotional silence that makes Niklas still feel his chest clench from past hurts, but then Papa lightens the mood by saying, “yeah imagine all the advice we can give you!”

“Ugh, no thanks,” Niklas says, wrinkling his nose.

“What do you mean?” Dad asks, sounding hurt.

“This kind of advice - you know, the heavy but general stuff - is okay,” Niklas explains quickly, not wanting to actually hurt his parents’ feelings. “But specific advice? Like technique or whatever? No way. If I ever used your tips I’d be thinking about _you_ the whole time and it’s just wrong thinking about your dads when you’re trying to get it on with someone.”

It’s Alexei’s turn to let out an outraged _EWW_ while both Daddy and Papa laugh loudly.

Niklas grins. This Sex Talk wasn’t so bad after all.


	18. Dresses and wedding plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Astrid has _plans_. Mario and Marco are not amused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on a true event

“Daddy?”

“Yes baby?”

“Can we go shopping?”

Marco puts the extra bottles of soda in the ice box, then turns to his daughter. “Not right now baby, we’re having a barbecue.”

Astrid pouts, then asks, “later then?”

“By the time everyone goes home all the shops will be closed, sweetie. We can go tomorrow?”

“No, we have to go today Daddy, or it will be too late.”

“Too late for what?”

“My wedding!”

Marco blinks. He then shakes his head because he’s pretty sure he didn’t hear what he just thought he heard. “Your what?” he asks in a strangled voice.

Astrid stomps her foot. “My wedding, Daddy! We have to go shopping  _ now _ so I can buy a dress for my wedding!”

“Okay…” Marco says slowly. “Um, so I didn’t know you were getting married. Did you tell Papa?”

“Papa’s cooking and I’m not allowed near the barbecue when he’s cooking,” Astrid pouts.

“That’s true,” Marco nods absentmindedly, his mind going into overdrive. He really wasn’t sure how he was going to handle this. “But shouldn’t we wait to talk to Papa before you get married? We’ll need time to plan. I’m sure whoever the person you’re going to marry is can wait.” Marco was also pretty sure that whoever Astrid was planning on getting married to was going to be given a very long and very stern lecture about marrying his 5 year old daughter.

“We don’t have time!”  Astrid says again, huffing in frustration. “André is going to go away tomorrow and I won’t see him for  _ years _ and I don’t want to wait years to get married! We have to get married  _ today! _ ”

“You’re marrying André?” Marco asks stupidly. “André Großkreutz?”

“Who else would I be marrying?” Astrid asks, exasperated.

_ Definitely not André if I have anything to say about it _ , Marco thinks to himself, glaring across his backyard at his apparent future son-in-law.

He takes Astrid by the hand and heads to the barbecue where Mario is chatting with Felix. 

“Papa,” Marco says to Mario when they’re close, “Astrid wants to ask you something.”

Mario puts the tongs down and smiles at their daughter. “What is it baby?”

“Can you take me shopping so I can buy my wedding dress?”

Mario’s eyes bulge and Felix starts choking on the kebab he was eating. When Mario squeaks out a strangled “what?”, Marco just shrugs and leaves them to it. He makes his way to the pool side where a bunch of their friends are watching the kids swimming, then punches Kevin in the shoulder. Hard.

“What the heck! Dude! What was that for?” Kevin demands.

“Astrid just asked me if we can go shopping for her wedding dress so she can marry André later.”

“Then why did you punch  _ me? _ I’m not the one marrying your daughter.”

“Because he’s your son,” Marco replies, glaring at the young man in question.

“I have no idea…” André starts stammering and blushing.

“What the hell, André?” Marcel laughs. “Taking the term “cradle snatching” a little too literally, don’t you think?”

André just goes even more red, and he starts flapping his arms nervously. “I didn’t do anything!”

“Not yet,” Marco growls, narrowing his eyes.

André lets out a small  _ eep _ and hides behind his father. “Dad, help! Uncle Marco is going to kill me.”

“Marco isn’t going to kill you,” Kevin sighs, rolling his eyes. “He doesn’t really have it in him.”

Marco glares at his friend, then also sighs. “You and I are going to have a  _ looong _ talk, André,” he says instead. “You wanna marry my daughter, you have to ask my permission first. And Sunny’s. Do you have idea what he’ll do to you when he finds out you’re secretly engaged to Astrid?”

“I’m not engaged to Astrid!” André denies wildly, arms flapping some more. “She’s  _ five! _ I have no idea why she’d think we were getting married!”

“Well you have about 10 seconds to figure it out,” Marcel says, “because Mario’s on his way, and he looks ready to murder someone.”

André spins around in panic, just in time to catch a little bundle of energy hurling herself at him. “Astrid?” he asks, slightly dazed.

“Hi André!” she grins, wrapping her arms tightly around his legs, looking up at him in childish adoration.

Before André or anyone else can say anything, though, Mario is upon them.

“ANDRÉ GROßKREUTZ!” Mario bellows, face like a thundercloud.

André lets out another pathetic  _ eep _ ; Marco crosses his arms smugly. 

André looks at his dad desperately, and Kevin pats him on the shoulder sympathetically. “I’m going to miss you, son.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> André is around 18/19 in this chapter, and yes, he really was telling the truth when he said he had no idea what was happening. Poor André :D


	19. Career choices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niklas has a difficult conversation with his parents

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The twins are around 14 here

There are twelve brown spots on the ceiling. Niklas knows this because he counted them all. Four times, just to be sure he got the number right. It’s something to do while he’s trying to collect enough courage before having to tell his parents about the thing he’d been thinking about since he got home from training a few fours ago.

Sighing, Niklas decides he might as well get it over and done with and just hope for the best; he’d already brushed his teeth anyway, and he could just crawl into bed and cry if his parents are actually as disappointed as he’s scared they will be. When he gets downstairs, Dad is sitting on one end of the couch flicking channels on the TV and Papa is in the kitchen, making tea, he thinks.

“Hey Nik, you watching with us?” Daddy asks when he notices him there.

Niklas doesn’t respond, just walks up to the couch and lies down with his head in Dad’s lap. Dad freezes for a second, then goes on clicking the remote even though his free hand starts carding into Niklas’s hair. It’s nice. Really calming, actually, and it reminds Niklas of when they were much younger and he and Alexei would fall asleep being petted like this.

They wait in silence for Papa to come around, and after Papa hands Dad his mug, Niklas reaches out and pulls Papa onto the other end of the couch, resting his legs on Papa’s thighs so Papa can massage his aching legs. Dad doesn’t start up the queue; him and Papa just patiently waiting for Niklas to speak.

Niklas is grateful for their silence.

Ever since he and Alexei had admitted to being bullied at school, things had changed. Papa had re-implemented a few of the ‘family rules’ from when they were kids - like family time at least once a week and kisses if anyone was leaving for the day - that they gradually stopped doing when they started high school. Niklas hadn’t realised how much he missed Papa’s spontaneous kisses until all of a sudden it was there again. Not that Dad wasn’t affectionate; it’s just that between the two of his fathers, Papa was the more naturally tactile, but even Niklas could see that Dad was hugging them a lot more, and that the random kiss on the temple had become a regular thing now too.

Niklas wondered sometimes if this was normal. Surely kids his age weren’t this tactile with their parents anymore, but he just couldn’t bring himself to not want it. Because he and Alexei had grown up this close to their parents, for him it was normal, and being able to do something like just lie on the couch with his head in Dad’s lap like he was four again was reassuring. He needed this security and comfort before he could tell them what was on his mind anyway, and he’s glad that this would always be normal for them.

“I don’t want to play anymore,” he says after a couple of minutes.

The fingers combing through his hair and the hand massaging his calf don’t stop.

“Do you think you can wait until the Christmas break?” Dad asks. “Of course we’ll tell coach as soon as possible, but it’ll be good to let him know exactly when you were planning on having your last day so he can tell the club. He’ll have to find a replacement for you and that might be hard mid-season.”

“I can wait,” Niklas  says. “I just don’t want to finish off the whole season. I’m not enjoying it anymore.”

“How long have you felt like this?” Papa asks. There’s no accusation, just curiosity, and the worry about how they would take him giving up football is slowly ebbing away.

“Not sure; maybe a year?”

“Do you think you’ve given yourself enough time to make sure this is really what you want?”

“Sometimes I feel like I would rather do extra lab work than go to training,” Niklas admits, making his parents laugh.

“I guess that’s your answer then,” Dad chuckles.

“You’re not disappointed?” Niklas asks, looking up at Dad, still slightly worried. What with Alexei already giving up football when they were ten, he’d always felt that he needed to still keep playing for both their sakes. Hopefully he was wrong all this time.

“You gotta want it bad enough, Nik, or else you’ll burn out and end up hating it. We don’t want that for you.”

“Just because we were footballers it doesn’t mean we expect you and Lex to be the same,” Papa adds. “That’s just putting pressure on you to get a job you’ll never grow to love as much as we did. We’re not going to be those parents.”

“Okay,” Niklas exhales slowly. “Should I call coach tomorrow?”

Dad nods. “Or we can wait until Saturday, whichever is better for you.”

“Wait until Saturday,” Niklas says after thinking about it for a moment. “I should tell him in person.”

“So are you staying to watch with us?” Dad asks, picking up the remote again. “We’ve only got the last two episodes so if you haven’t seen it, it might not make sense.”

Niklas doesn’t get up, still too comfortable being cocooned by his parents. “I’ll watch.”

He must fall asleep pretty quickly, because next thing he knows he’s being shaken awake, there’s a pillow under his head because Dad is in the kitchen and not on the couch, and he has absolutely no idea what the show was about.

“Time for bed,” Papa says, looming over him.

Niklas lifts his arms without thinking, still half asleep.

“You’re fourteen, not four,” Papa laughs, “I can’t carry you to bed anymore. You’ll have to walk up yourself.”

Niklas yawns, then rolls off the couch, sleepily giving both parents a goodnight kiss before shuffling up to bed. That wasn’t so bad, after all.


	20. The big reveal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexei receives a reward for all his hard work, and shares it with the most important people in his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> High school film awards are quite common, so if it were available to him, I totally picture Alexei getting involved since photography and filming have been his major hobbies since he was about 6.

“Do you think he’ll win? Of course he’ll win, right? His last submission was amazing - he got three nominations for it! He’s favourite for the Best Direction, right? And maybe he’ll even take out cinematography. What do you think are his chances for taking all three?”

Julian had been rambling to Rea pretty much as soon as they arrived, and even now seated towards the back with about twenty of their family and friends, the young man hadn’t stopped his fidgeting. Bernd could understand Julian’s nerves, he himself was nervous as hell but was just better at hiding it.

“How did you manage to get so many tickets?” Marc-André asks quietly as they take their seats and the lights dim for the award ceremony to start.

“I bought twenty as soon the booking agent released them to the general public,” Bernd whispers back. “I figured we’d need that many just from our families coming.”

There were a lot of people, even for a high school film awards event, and Bernd knows that if this had been a local school event and they had it in the school hall, he’d be limited to four family tickets, but this was a national award, and they were so proud of Alexei that they couldn’t help telling all their family and friends about it. Naturally though, that meant everyone wanted to come to support Alexei and had demanded a ticket - it had been really difficult trying to please everyone, and in the end they’d prioritised family first so that Alexei’s friends outside of school could come. Their friends had fought for the last free tickets while everyone else was going to meet them afterwards.

“Good work there,” Marc says, then cranes his neck to see if he can spot where the twins are sitting with Alexei’s best friends. “Can you see them?”

“No,” Bernd frowns. “I can’t believe you gave away our seats. I can barely see anything from here.”

“Timo and Leif would’ve enjoyed being up there more than having to sit with our families here,” Marc says. “Besides, Lex doesn’t really get to spend time with them anymore since they all started Gymnasium, this is good for them.”

Bernd just shrugs because he isn’t really too upset about sitting so far away. “Are you nervous?”

“You have no fucking idea!” Marc laughs softly.

“That makes two of us,” Bernd replies, reaching his hand over to link their little pinkies together.

Like all awards ceremonies, the night drags on and on. Because Alexei’s three nominations were major categories, they had to wait a long time before Alexei’s film is even previewed.

When it does show up on the screen just before his first category, Bernd gets tingled down his spine, so proud that this was his son’s work. When Niklas' face zooms in and out in all it’s fifteen seconds of glory to signal the start of the short film, Bernd can feel Marc tighten the grip on his hand.

_Creatures and Calling_ takes second place for Cinematography (“he should have won that!” André had hissed when someone else had been called out) and fourth for Best Screenwriting; by the time the Best Direction finalists are read out, Bernd is practically chewing on his nails from the nerves.

The host, typically, is taking his time with the envelop. “And the winner is… _Alexei Leno for Creatures and Calling!”_

Something like an explosion happens as their entire group lets out a cheer and Marc grips his hand almost painfully. They share a manic grin, but quickly turn back to the stage just as Alexei practically bounds up the stage.

“Wow! Oh wow!” the young man says when he’s clutching the trophy, laughing breathlessly. “I’m so happy and nervous and have so many people to thank but will probably forget a lot of people so I’m just going to say thank you to everyone who helped make this happen - to my parents, to the friends and cousins who were part of the film, Herr Möller for believing I could do this, and um, everyone else!”

Alexei takes a moment to just grin and giggle, which makes everyone laugh.

“I think I have to thank my brother specifically, though,” he adds, a little more serious this time, “because he’s been my main actor since Dad first let me start taking photos when we were five. Through the years he’s fallen out of a cubby house, nearly gotten run over by a car, dyed his hair purple, ended up in hospital a few times, and is probably going to be famous now because of my film.”

“Hell yeah!” Niklas calls loudly from the front, making everyone chuckle again.

Alexei just grins at him, then takes a breath. “So Niklas ter Stegen-Leno, this is for you, too. Thanks everyone!”

The polite applause can’t quite hide the murmurs as Alexei walks back down from the stage to sit with Niklas again, and Bernd can feel his face heating up as he and Marc exchange a wide-eyed look. In front of them, Laina turns around to gape at them.

“Did Lex just…?” she asks her uncle, and Bernd returns her confused look.

“Oh my God,” Nico whispers next to him. “Your son just outed you. Rather subtly, but he definitely used their full surname, right?”

“Yeah,” Bernd nods slowly, still also a little stunned. The others are looking at them in curiosity too, but Bernd is just as clueless as the rest of them.

“Did you know he was going to do that?” Bernd asks Marc.

“No,” Marc shakes his head. “This is a surprise to me, too.”

“O well,” Bernd finally shrugs as they try to pay attention to the last fifteen minutes of the ceremony.

At the end of it, they wait just outside the foyer for the boys to come out, ignoring the occasional curious and not-so-subtle looks some of the guests are throwing their way. When they do, Alexei looks uncharacteristically nervous, clutching the trophy close to chest as they make their way to where they’re all gathered.

But then Marc opens up his arms, and so does Bernd, and Alexei nearly throws himself at them as they embrace him, whispering their congratulations and kissing him repeatedly before they tug Niklas into them to join in the group hug. And for that brief, glorious moment, it’s just the four of them, celebrating Alexei’s win and laughing with utter joy without having to care about what they look like to the public. Bernd feels like his chest is about to burst.

Suddenly Julian and Rea jump on them, then Timo and Leif join in again and are quickly followed by the cousins, and Marc and Bernd pull back to let the younger ones congratulate Alexei.

“Alright let’s take this party back to the restaurant where there is food, because I’m _starving_ ,” Mario finally says after a few minutes of everyone wanting to see the trophy.

At the restaurant, the entire back room is already set up, with ‘Congratulations’ strung out in bright foil balloons and a giant cake on one of the tables. All their friends are there too, and Alexei goes bright red when the party poppers go off and everyone cheers as he enters.

“Kev,” Bernd breathes. “What’s all this? You didn’t have to!”

“You have your brother-in-law to thank, actually,” Kevin laughs, placing an arm around Bernd’s shoulder. “He planned all this; I just made sure they set it up properly. Besides, that boy of yours is going to be a world famous photographer or director one day, but this will have been his start. We gotta celebrate the little wins, too, you know.”

“Thanks mate,” Bernd says, overwhelmed.

The boys are still bouncing when they finally reach home after dropping Timo and Leif off and Bernd’s family head up to the guest bedrooms. They set the trophy proudly on the glass hallway table just outside the home office.

“We’re so proud of you,” Marc is saying, arm slung loosely over Alexei’s shoulders. Bernd has to blink for a moment, because the boys were now the same height as them and it’s incredible how he it feels like only a couple of years ago that they were still five and Alexei was first learning to use a camera.

“You’re not mad, then? About what I did?” Alexei asks in a small voice, and because Niklas looks just as uncertain as his twin, Bernd knows that they’d decided between them beforehand to use their full name during Alexei’s speech.

“Why would we be?” Marc asks, drawing Alexei closer so that he is in a hug; Bernd does the same to Niklas, stepping towards the other two so that they could close the circle of arms around their little family. “We said you could, remember? Whenever you felt comfortable. We’re not ashamed of you, or us, and we don’t want you to feel like you have to hide anything.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Alexei admits, “but then Nik made me promise that if I won I had to thank him and I just thought it would be good way to do it.”

“I’m glad,” Bernd murmurs, placing a kiss on Niklas’ forehead, then turning his head slightly to do the same for Alexei. “And at least now Dad can get the credit for teaching you in the first place.”

“I know,” Marc laughs lightly, rolling his eyes. “Everyone must have thought whenever you said ‘Dad’ you were referring to Papa.”

“Well now they know,” Alexei grins at his dad and Niklas laughs loudly.

Bernd doesn’t think he could be happier if he tried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alexei being worried about using their full name like that and basically outting his parents, followed by Marc reminding him that they're _allowed_ to, is in reference to the events that happened in [Heal the hurts with love](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8648656)

**Author's Note:**

> \--  
> I have a [tumblr account ](https://khalehla.tumblr.com) for my writings and random ficlets. If you have a question about this or any of my other stories, come say hi :)
> 
> Disclaimer: I write **fiction** about real people. As far as I know, none of these events ever happened; any resemblance to any actual events are purely coincidental.

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